Qualcomm is no longer the undisputed king of the mobile SoCs. Its dominance in the chipset market has gradually declined due to stiff competition from rivals like MediaTek, NVIDIA, Intel and Samsung. Its flagship chipset Snapdragon 810 also failed miserably last year and drew a lot of critique worldwide for its over-heating issues.
Qualcomm has been trying to rectify this situation and is trying to reclaim its old glory and the release of its latest chipsets may be a step in this endeavour. Qualcomm recently launched three of its mid-range chipsets, Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 (MSM8953), Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 (MSM8940) and Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 (MSM8917). The former two SoCs are octa-core while the last one will be a quad-core chipset.
These new releases are expected to run mid-range smartphones, and the devices running on these chipsets are expected to come in the 2nd half of this year.
The most powerful of these three chipsets is the octa-core Snapdragon 625. It is based on a 14nm manufacturing process, with an integrated X9 LTE modem. The Snapdragon 435 and Snapdragon 425 also feature onboard LTE modems, in the X8 LTE and X6 LTE modems respectively.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 (MSM8953)
This chipset employs leading-edge 14 nm technology and would be seen in mid and high tier devices. It uses eight power efficient ARM Cortex A53 cores clocked at 2.0 GHz to provide great speed as well as battery efficiency. It has Adreno 506 GPU and supports up to 4K video recording and playback. It has an integrated X9 LTE and other popular connectivity options. It can support up to 24MP cameras and supports playback of H.265 (HEVC) codec files. It also supports USB 3.0.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 (MSM8940)
It uses 28 nm technology and has eight ARM Cortex A53 cores clocked at 1.4 GHz. This is the first chipset in the 400 series to integrate X8 LTE with support for Cat 6 speeds. This chipset will come with dual ISP and Adreno 505 GPU. It will support up to 21MP camera and 1080p video playback and recording. It will also play most of the famous codecs including H.265 (HEVC). However, it misses on USB 3.0.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 (MSM8917)
This is an entry-level mid-tier processor. It uses 28 nm technology and has four ARM Cortex A53 cores clocked at 1.4 GHz to provide speed and power efficiency. It will support up to 16 MP camera and will play and record up to 1080p videos. It will also support most of the popular codecs including H.265 (HEVC). But it misses on the Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 which is present in the other two chipsets.
For more details refer to the official Qualcomm website. Stay tuned for more news and updates and do leave your comments in the box. Adios.