Qualcomm unveils Snapdragon 430, 617 chips for mid-range devices

Qualcomm is launching two new processors designed to bring better performance and a few new features to mid-ranged smartphones.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor is a 64-bit chip with support for 4G LTE and camera sensors up to 21 megapixels, while the Snapdragon 617 supports even faster LTE speeds and more powerful graphics.

Snapdragon 617

Qualcomm says the Snapdragon 617 chip will be available in devices that should ship before the end of 2015. It has an integrated X8 LTE modem with support for download speeds up to 300 Mbps and download speeds up to 100 Mbps on supported networks with 4G LTE Cat 7 technology.

The processor has 8 ARM Cortex-A53 64-bit CPU cores with speeds up to 1.5 GHz and features Adreno 405 graphics.

Among other things, this 28nm chip supports H.265 video, 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.1, 21MP cameras, eMMC 5.1, and Qualcomm’s new Quick Charge 3.0 technology.

Snapdragon 430

This 28nm, octa-core ARM Cortex-A53 processor supports top speeds of 1.2 GHz and also supports 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.1, eMMC 5.1, H.265 video and Quick Charge 3.0.

But this chip has a Snapdragon X6 LTE modem with top download speeds of 150 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 75 Mbps.

While the Snapdragon 430 is likely aimed at lower-cost devices than the Snapdragon 617 processor, it’s interesting to note that this chip features Adreno 505 graphics. Qualcomm hasn’t said much about this new graphics technology yet, but generally the company uses higher numbers to signify higher performance, which means the Snapdragon 430 might have a little more oomph than the Snapdragon 617 when it comes to graphics-oriented tasks.