Qualcomm today has revealed their newest system on a chip (SoC) targeted for the lower end of the smartphone market and it is quite interesting.
The Snapdragon 215 is the name of the SoC and it includes support for features that we have seen trickling down to budget smartphones.
First is that the platform includes a 64bit CPU which is a first fr the 200 series of Snapdragon SoCs. The CPU are 4 cortex A53 cores that are clocked upto 1.3GHz, which is 50% more than the one on the Snapdragon 212. The Adreno 308 GPU is 28% more powerful than the one on the 212. However, it is still manufactured on the old 28nm process.
This new SoC also supports single 13MP cameras or 8MP dual cameras and the ability to shoot 1080p video. It supports the HD+ (1520 x 720p) displays that we see on budget phones and also 19.5:9 aspect ratio support. It is also the first time we are seeing Qualcomm’s Hexagon Digital Signal Processor on a 200 series chip.
It also supports upto 3GB of LPDDR3 RAM, eMMC 4.5 internal flash storage and GPS/GLONASS support.
It has the same X5 modem that now it supports Dual SIM, Dual VoLTE and peak LTE download and upload speed of 150Mbps and 50Mbps respectively. It is also the first 2 series Snapdragon chip to support ac WiFi which means phones that have it will have faster Wi-Fi connectivity than before.
This is a big upgrade from the previous 2 series Snapdragon chip and it means that the next generation of budget phones in the $100 range will be significantly better than before.
