Top features of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 and 630 mobile platforms

Qualcomm has recently announced their newest mobile platforms – the Snapdragon 660 and Snapdragon 630. Aside from the promised performance bump, it comes with a slew of features that smartphone manufacturers can take advantage of. Check them out below.

To give you a quick background, Qualcomm has four mobile platform tiers: Qualcomm 200 (Entry tier), Snapdragon 400 (Mid tier), Snapdragon 600 (High tier), and Snapdragon 800 (Premium tier).

The Snapdragon 660 and 630 are the newest members of the High tier platforms that focus on seven categories of features.

Camera

The SD660 and SD630 feature the Qualcomm Spectra 160 ISP which promises improved image quality when it comes to camera photography. It boasts natural skin tones, superior low light performance, better power efficiency and higher throughput for dual camera smartphones. That said, future devices equipped with the new mobile platforms can feature smooth optical zoom, bokeh effects, dual pixel AF, and improved camcorder video stabilization.

Audio and Visual Processing

Qualcomm Hexagon 680 DPS with Hexagon Vector eXtensions (HVX) is finally available in this tier thanks to the SD660 and SD630. The said feature gives mobile devices access to high performance, power efficient image processing, computer vision, and machine intelligence workloads.

Connectivity

The SD660 and SD630 feature the Snapdragon X12 LTE modem, a Cat 12 modem capable of 600Mbps download and 150Mbps upload. If this sounds familiar, that’s because it was the modem that handles LTE connectivity on the SD820/821 from last year. In addition, the SD660 supports 2×2 MU-MIMO 802.11ac Wi-Fi, LTE/Wi-Fi antenna sharing, and Dual Band Simultaneous (DBS). Both platforms also have Qualcomm TruSignal adaptive antenna tuning with carrier aggregation, location engine with better sensitivity and support for Galileo and QZSS, and Bluetooth 5.

CPU and GPU

As expected, the new SD660 and SD630 get performance increases over their predecessors. The SD660 with a Qualcomm Kryo 260 CPU offers 20% improvement over the SD653, while its Qualcomm Adreno 512 GPU offers 30% improvement.

In the case of the SD 630, it offers 10% increase in CPU performance over the SD625, and 30% increase in the Adreno 508 GPU performance. In addition, both platforms are designed to offer better battery life.

Qualcomm Quick Charge 4

Future devices with SD660 and SD630 platforms can soon take advantage of Qualcomm’s latest fast charging tech – the Quick Charge 4. Qualcomm says that it provide the device with up to 5 hours of talk time in just 5 minutes of charging and up to 50% battery life in just 15 minutes of charging (test based on a 2,750mAh battery). That said, we’re looking forward to devices with longer battery life yet capable of recharging in the shortest time possible.

Security

Improved security is one of the main features of the new SD660 and SD630 platforms. It supports Qualcomm Mobile Security, which provides security focused hardware-based protection, user authentication and device attestation on the mobile device. This means devices have better resistance to malware while at the same time improves security that is based on biometrics like fingerprint, iris, and voice.

Machine Learning

The SD660 and SD630 platforms are now powerful enough to handle machine learning. Using the Snapdragon Neural Processing Engine SDK, OEMs and developers can now tap into that power and introduce new features that will enhance user experiences, especially in AR and VR areas.

To conclude, Qualcomm is strengthening the 600 tier with the introduction of the new Snapdragon 660 and Snapdragon 630 mobile platforms. It brings with them the kind of technology once exclusive to premium devices like power efficiency, improved camera features, machine learning, enhanced connectivity, and stronger security. Now it’s up to OEMs to produce those devices that can take advantage of the said features.