Qualcomm is starting the year with a fresh new lineup with the Snapdragon 820 being their latest flagship processor. Moving down the ladder, they have just announced 3 new processors that boasts better performance and battery life for the entry to mid-range segment.
Snapdragon 625
The Snapdragon 625 is their latest mid-range processor and it uses a 14nm fab process that translates to greater power efficiency. According to Qualcomm, the 625 uses up to 35% less power compared to the Snapdragon 617 that’s currently powering the HTC One A9. It uses an Octa-Core set up with 8x ARM Cortex A53 running beyond 2.0GHz. In the graphics department, it gets an integrated Qualcom Adreno 506 GPU.
The Snapdragon 625 chip will support displays up to 1900×1200 at 60fps and it is capable of capturing videos up to 4K. Connectivity wise, it gets X9 modem that does Cat 7 4G LTE (up to 300Mbps), 802.11ac WiFi and it also supports Qualcomm’s latest Quick Charge 3.0. On the current Snapdragon 600 series family, the 625 sits right below the Hexa-Core Snapdragon 650 that powers the current Redmi Note 3 Pro and its higher end Octa-Core Snapdragon 652.
Snapdragon 435/425
Next is their entry-level Snapdragon 435/425 offering. The 435 is pretty much an upgraded 430 processor based on 28nm process with 8 ARM Cortex A53 cores running up to 1.4GHz. and it gets an Adreno 505 GPU with support up to a 1080p display at 60fps. It is also capable of supporting cameras up to 21MP and records video up to 1080p. The only difference for the 435 is it supports X8 LTE that brings faster Cat 7 4G LTE speeds (up to 300Mbps) instead of the usual Cat 4 (up to 150Mbps).
The Snapdragon 425 can be seen as the replacement of its current popular Snapdragon 410 processor. It still retains the same 4x ARM Cortex A53 cores but it runs on a higher 1.4GHz. While the display is capped at 1280×800 at 60fps, it supports cameras up to 16MP and captures video up to 1080p. WiFi connectivity is faster with 802.11ac MU-MIMO and it also supporters faster eMMC 5.1 storage. For 4G LTE, it uses its X6 LTE modem that claims to have superior battery life than its predecessor. All 3 processors are set to be commercially available in the 2nd half of 2016.
