Qualcomm has finally unveiled their first mobile platform in the 700-tier portfolio, the Snapdragon 710. The new series has several advancements over the 600-tier with focus on AI Engine and Neural processing. With their latest platform, Qualcomm aims to bring these select premium-tier features to a broader audience. So let us find out what the new Snapdragon 710 is capable of.
“The Snapdragon 710 Mobile Platform is the first in the newly defined and highly significant 700-tier, offering technologies and features previously only available in our premium-tier mobile platforms,” said Kedar Kondap, vice president, product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
The 710 comes with a multi-core Artificial Intelligence Engine and supports Neural processing. This will enhance the AI experience in camera, audio, security and gaming. These include managing the battery usage, auto-adjusting the settings for pictures, listening to your voice cues etc. The Hexagon 685 DSP, Adreno 616 GPU and Kryo 360 CPU, coupled with Neural Processing Engine is responsible for delivering this superior on-device AI processing.
The new Snapdragon X15 LTE modem helps you to achieve lightning-fast download speeds up to 800 Mbps with 3x carrier aggregation, 4×4 MIMO and LAA support. The X15 modem also supports the Dual SIM Dual VoLTE(DSDV) feature. It also has a tri-band Wi-Fi 802.11ac with 2×2 antenna along with Bluetooth 5.0 for local connectivity.
The newly designed 2nd generation Spectra 250 Image Signal Processor provides superior low-light photography, noise reduction, fast autofocus, image stabilization, smooth zoom and real-time bokeh effects. The 14-bit ISP can also handle a 32MP single camera or a 20MP dual camera and up to 6 cameras in various combinations. You can also capture Ultra HD videos and 4K at 30fps with Motion Compensated Temporal Filtering(MCTF noise reduction). When combined with AI Engine, the Face ID/Unlock can actively sense the depth.
The 710 also features the Adreno 616 GPU which can render console-like graphics on mobile devices. The Adreno 616 is also compatible with Open GL ES 3.2, Open CL 2.0, Vulkan, and DirectX 12. It features 4K(H.264, H.265) HDR playback and Qualcomm Aqstic audio codec to provide a cinematic experience. The GPU also supports display output over USB Type-C.
The Kryo CPU has a 10nm architecture with two high-performance cores clocked at 2.2GHz and six efficiency cores clocked at 1.7GHz. This gives an overall 20% performance uplift on a single charge across gaming, web browsing etc. Moreover, the new Quick Charge 4+ technology helps a device to charge 15% faster at 30% increased efficiency. This will also help to charge a device from zero to fifty percent in just 15 minutes.
Although the Snapdragon 710 comes with a lot of improvements, it is up to the OEM(Original Equipment Manufacturer) to use these features. Even early adopters like Xiaomi disables certain features like Quick Charging to bring down the effective cost. The new 710 platform is already available for OEMs and we can expect the first consumer device by the second quarter of 2018. Hope the article was informative, Peace!