Technology
The Snapdragon 780G chipset from Qualcomm offers more flagship features at a lower price.
Qualcomm has announced the Snapdragon 780G, a new 7-series processor that brings features from the company's flagship Snapdragon 888 chipset to a more affordable phone for manufacturers (and, by extension, consumers).
The 780G replaces the 765G / 768G as the top model in the 7-series range (the latter being largely a frequency-boosted version of the former). Obviously, there's a performance boost: the 780G includes Qualcomm's Kryo 670 CPU, which the company claims boosts performance by 40%, as well as a new Adreno 642 GPU that delivers up to 50% faster graphics than the 765 model.
However, the 780G enables several new features, such as the Spectra 570 triple ISP (image signal processor), which, like the Snapdragon 888, allows phones to capture three picture or video feeds at once.
The Snapdragon 780G, like the Snapdragon 888, includes Qualcomm's sixth-generation AI engine, which runs on a new Hexagon 770 processor that can perform 12 trillion operations per second (TOPS), which is twice as fast as its predecessor but still falls short of the Snapdragon 888's 26 TOPS. It also includes Qualcomm's second-generation Sensing Center, which debuted on the company's flagship chipset.
Finally, the 780G has enhanced networking features, including an integrated Snapdragon X53 5G modem that offers up to 3.3Gbps speeds on 5G networks operating at sub-6 GHz. The 780G, like its more expensive sister, provides support for Wi-Fi 6E, allowing phones equipped with the new chip to take advantage of the fastest Wi-Fi speeds available as well as Bluetooth 5.2.
The Snapdragon 780G is scheduled to arrive in phones in the second quarter of 2021.
