Qualcomm has announced its latest 7-series processor, the Snapdragon 780G, which trickles down features from the company’s flagship Snapdragon 888 chipset, while still offering manufacturers (and, by extension, consumers) a more affordable phone.
The 780G takes the new top slot in the 7-series lineup, replacing the 765G / 768G (the latter being largely a frequency-boosted version of the former). Obviously, there’s the usual boost in performance: the 780G features Qualcomm’s Kryo 670 CPU, which the company says offers a 40 percent boost in performance, and a new Adreno 642 GPU for up to 50 percent faster graphics compared to the 765 model.
But the 780G also enables some new functionality, like the Spectra 570 triple ISP (image signal processor), which, like the Snapdragon 888, allows for phones to capture three simultaneous photo or video feeds at the same time.
And like the Snapdragon 888, the Snapdragon 780G features Qualcomm’s sixth-generation AI engine running on a new Hexagon 770 processor, which can perform 12 trillion operations per second (TOPS) — twice that of its predecessor, even if it still pales in comparison to the 26 TOPS that the Snapdragon 888 offers. It also features the second-gen Sensing Hub that Qualcomm debuted on its flagship chipset.
Lastly, the 780G has improved connectivity features, with an integrated Snapdragon X53 5G modem that promises up to 3.3Gbps speeds on Sub-6 GHz 5G networks. And like its pricier sibling, the 780G adds support for Wi-Fi 6E, meaning phones with the new chip will be able to take advantage of the fastest Wi-Fi speeds around as well as Bluetooth 5.2.
The first phones with the Snapdragon 780G are expected to release in the second quarter of 2021.
