Qualcomm’s latest chip for entry-level smartphones is designed to offer up to 50-percent better performance than its predecessor, a 28 percent graphics boost, and new features including support for budget smartphones with dual cameras.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 215 processor is also a 64-bit chip, which makes the new processor a lot more future-proof than the 32-bit Snapdragon 212 mobile platform it replaces (Google will continue to offer 32-bit Android apps for the foreseeable future, but the company is requiring developers to offer 64-bit versions starting next month).

 

Here are some of the key features of the new chip:

  • 28nm Quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU (up to 1.3 GHz)
  • Adreno 308 GPU
  • Qualcomm Hexagon DSP
  • High-definition audio playback up to 192 kHz/24-bit
  • Display resolutions up to 1560 x 720
  • 2 image signal processors
  • Dual camera support (up to 13MP photo capture for single-camera or 8MP for dual cameras)
  • Up to 1080p video capture
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon X5 LTE Cat 4 modem (150Mbps down/50 Mbps up)
  • Dual SIM support
  • 802.11ac WiFi
  • Bluetooth 4.2
  • Qualcomm Quick Charge support
  • Up to 3 GB of LPDDR3 672 MHz RAM
  • Support for eMMC 4.5 built-in storage and UHS-I/SD 3.0 removable storage

Qualcomm says we should start to see Snapdragon 215-powered devices in the second half of 2019… so any day now.

press release

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7 replies on “Qualcomm Snapdragon 215 could lead to better entry-level smartphones”

  1. This looks to have a lot in common with the SD425, though this may have some tweaks to make it somewhat different. In the end, it’s more of a rebranding. They did a similar thing with the SD625, which was well received when it was new. They used that as the basis for the SD450. The SD200 series has needed an update for a while, especially as it was still 32-bit, and this is an easy way to do that. SD425 is already thought of by many as the low end or entry level. I’ve been using a phone with it, to replace a more powerful phone that had some issues, and it’s not bad for my usage, and the battery life has been surprisingly good.

  2. I would question the power consumption. I’ve been buying 600 series (and soon hopefully 700 series) to get decent performance with great battery life. I’m not seeing the appeal of this when you can buy midrange phones for under $200.

    1. This isn’t the phone for you.
      It’s a module to stick into those $20-$90 phones, which sell like hotcakes all over the world.

      For someone making USD $20,000 or more per year, there’s little appeal. But plenty of people worldwide (60%) make less than this, and the increase in performance, features, battery life is certainly welcome, especially for someone only making USD $5,000 per year and is using very cheap 3G connectivity.

    2. This kind of soc mostly are used in Smart feature phone category, phones like Nokia 8110 (banana phone), jio phone, etc

      more than 100m device has been sold which use kai os only, that’s show how big this market is. And most of them are under $50.

  3. Hmm interesting that major speed bump (claimed) even with same 28 nm process, which is decades old by now, either the chip has more transistors or something was optimized. But it cant have too many transistors because it would suck too much battery power, esp. on a budget phone. I find it fascinating that so many old process fabs still exist and even newbuild. There is a huge market for old process nodes, which runs counter to common logic that chips tends to shrink. According to my sources the expense isnt even in the fab itself per se, apparently for more advanced nodes, the cost rises exponentially in debug, meaning, human labor cost. The old nodes can be running dated equipment that is hard to find, not being produced anymore, and thus, more expensive than advanced nodes. Its really quite bizarre. Yet there is demand.

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