Qualcomm announced several new products at its 5G Summit on May 19th, including a new smartphone chip, a new modem and more.
First up, Qualcomm unveiled its Snapdragon 778G 5G Mobile Platform. The company says the 778G is already set to power upcoming “high-tier” phones from Honor (a former sub-brand of Huawei that’s not available in Canada), Motorola, Oppo, Realme, Xiaomi and iQOO.
“Snapdragon 778G was developed to address the growing demand by global OEMs for more platform options in the high-tier. Snapdragon 778G brings many of the latest premium technologies and features into the high-tier to help make next generation experiences more broadly accessible,” said Kedar Kondap, VP of product management at Qualcomm Technologies.
Qualcomm highlighted the 778G’s camera, which features a “Triple ISP” (image signal processor) that can capture three photos or videos simultaneously. The system would allow someone to record from, say, a wide-angle, ultra-wide angle and zoom lenses at once and stitch them together to make use of the best aspects of each lens. Further, the 778G supports 4K recording with HDR10+ and ‘Staggered HDR’ image sensors that enables capture of computational HDR video.
The Snapdragon 778G also boasts powerful artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities thanks to its sixth gen Qualcomm AI Engine featuring the Qualcomm Hexagon 770 processor. The 770 can deliver up to 12 TOPs and 2x performance while using less power than its predecessor. This AI Engine is the same one featured in Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 780G.
For connectivity, the 778G sports Qualcomm’s X53 5G Modem-RF system with mmWave and Sub-6 support. It also has Qualcomm’s FastConnect 6700 system and supports multi-gigabit Wi-Fi 6 speeds up to 2.9Gbps. The 778G supports Bluetooth 5.2 and Wi-Fi 6E as well.
Finally, when it comes to performance, the 778G uses Qualcomm’s 6nm process and sports the Kryo 670, enabling a 40 percent uplift in overall CPU performance. There’s also the Adreno 642L GPU, which Qualcomm says can render graphics up to 40 percent faster than the previous generation.
Qualcomm expects the Snapdragon 778G will be commercially available in the second quarter of 2021.
The new X65 modem boasts 10 Gigabit speeds
Qualcomm also unveiled its new Snapdragon X65 5G Modem-RF System, which builds on the company’s fourth generation 5G solution with higher speeds and a software-upgradeable architecture that Qualcomm says will allow it to future-proof the modem as 5G continues to expand.
First up, the X65 boasts expanded mmWave capabilities, including support for up to 200MHz spectrum. Qualcomm notes this will help with upcoming rollouts of 5G mmWave, especially in China.
For consumers, the X65 sports improved power efficiency through technologies like ‘Qualcomm 5G PowerSave 2.0.’
Qualcomm says the X65 will usher in the era of 10 Gigabit 5G connectivity, and the company says its the first 10 Gigabit modem-RF system. Qualcomm expects the X65 to be commercially available in devices by late 2021.
Interestingly, Qualcomm also announced a way to bring the X65 to laptops through an M.2 reference design. M.2, for those unfamiliar, is a type of connector commonly used for compact SSDs in computers and laptops. Qualcomm’s reference design will allow manufacturers to use M.2 connections to add 5G to laptops using either the new X65 modem or Qualcomm’s X62 modem. The reference designs are already available to Qualcomm’s customers and consumers may soon see M.2 5G cards based on Qualcomm’s designs in connected products soon.
You can learn more about Qualcomm’s latest announcements here.
Image credit: Qualcomm
