It’s almost time for Qualcomm to hold its annual Snapdragon Summit again, where the chipmaker describes its latest flagship processor, which will appear in next year’s phones. We all expect the Snapdragon 875 to launch this year, picking up where the Snapdragon 865 left off.
There was also some noise from a lite version of its flagship processor, which is supposedly called the Snapdragon 870, which could be a Snapdragon 865 Plus with a higher clock speed (3.2 GHz or higher).
Regardless of what Qualcomm is finally showing off in December, a Snapdragon 870 or a “Snapdragon 875 Lite” makes a lot of sense for the business and the smartphone industry in general.
The state of Snapdragon
Before we can understand why a lite version of the Snapdragon 875 makes sense, we need to first look at the current status of Qualcomm’s premium silicon.
The Snapdragon 865 was a rather controversial entry in the history of Qualcomm’s flagship chipset. Sure, you have features like unlimited 960fps recording, 8K video recording, top notch graphics, and mmWave 5G at super fast speeds. The biggest blow to the chipset, however, was its price, which reportedly saw a sharp increase over last year’s Snapdragon 855 series. In fact, Xiaomi stated that the chipset and modem cost for the Mi 10 series has doubled compared to last year’s Mi 9.
Continue reading: Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 Series History
As a result, we saw very few affordable flagship-style devices with the top chipset from Qualcomm in 2020. While Samsung bucked the trend with the extremely affordable Galaxy S20 FE, we saw the price of many killer-like flagship phones rise. To name just a few examples: Xiaomi Mi 10, OnePlus 8, Poco F2 Pro and Realme X50 Pro were all more expensive than their predecessors.
Between the reported cost of the Snapdragon 865 series, the use of expensive mmWave 5G in some markets (up to $ 100 more for a mmWave variant), and the lack of any real competitor silicon on the market, it’s no wonder we have several Brands are opting for upper-middle-range silicon rather than paying the premium.
The increased price of the Snapdragon 865 has forced some brands to switch to upper mid-range silicon.
In particular, we’ve seen Qualcomm’s cheaper Snapdragon 765G processor be the go-to for flagship lite devices, especially the Google Pixel 5 and LG Velvet. It is also easy to understand thinking. The midrange chipset offers good performance for everyday use as well as many high-end features that are the same as the Snapdragon 865, such as 5G, fast charging, high resolution camera support and high refresh rate.
There is one big weakness for the Snapdragon 765G, however, and that is in the GPU arena.
Bridging the graphics gap
Our own tests have shown that the Snapdragon 765G is weaker than the 2018 Snapdragon 845 flagship processor in terms of graphics performance. Those hoping to play power hungry games or retro games through emulators in the best possible quality could be disappointed. But how many people want that from their cell phones, right?
Unfortunately, this gap in GPU performance is especially relevant in 2020 and will remain so in 2021 and beyond as high refresh rate screens increase performance requirements. We ran GFXBench on the Pixel 5, and another much-discussed Snapdragon 765G phone with a 90Hz display – the OnePlus Nord. The results clearly show that the chipset is not able to run the most technically advanced software with more than 60 fps. The Pixel 5 in particular only achieved just under 30 fps in the Manhattan test. In comparison, both the Asus ROG Phone 2 and Nubia Red Magic 3 – two 2019 phones with Snapdragon 855 series chipsets and high refresh rate displays – were able to get much closer to their target frame rate.
Benchmarks don’t correlate directly with day-to-day performance, of course, and you’d expect better performance when browsing the web, navigating the system, and playing light games on a phone like the Pixel 5 or the OnePlus Nord.
However, it leads us to believe that a lot of high frame rate 3D games will not perform stably. Between PUBG Mobile, Fortnite, and other outstanding console / PC ports, you might have to settle for 60 fps or even less in some titles.
How can you bridge the GPU gap between the affordable 700 series and the premium 800 series? This is where a Snapdragon 875 Lite could make a huge difference.
What could a Snapdragon 875 Lite bring to the table?
Recognition: Ryan-Thomas Shaw / Android Authority
A Snapdragon 875 Lite with a GPU equivalent to the Snapdragon 865, or perhaps even the 855/855 Plus, can go a long way in helping you actually see high frame rates when using a phone with a high refresh rate. However, graphical performance is only one potential benefit out of several possible benefits.
A Lite processor with a more advanced CPU could not only narrow the GPU performance gap between the Snapdragon 765G and the flagship silicon, but it could also improve multimedia performance and connectivity features. After all, the Snapdragon 765G only has two heavy cores compared to four in the 800 series, lags behind in machine learning performance and lacks support for cutting edge features like 8K recording, a super-fast ISP, and LPDDR5 RAM.
A Snapdragon 875 Lite processor could fill a huge gap between the 700 and 800 series.
Based on this model, a lite processor would provide faster and better camera processing (e.g. HDR +), higher resolution multi-image processing, faster app launching and loading, higher quality video options, and faster, more accurate augmented reality features like face filters .
This would open the door to affordable flagship phones with true flagship performance. Expected 2021 phones like the Pixel 6 or the LG Velvet 2 could stick to a cheaper price point without sacrificing performance. The flagship killer could also make a comeback as OEMs no longer have to decide whether to pay top dollars for the performance of the elite or to make heavy compromises in other areas such as display, storage, build quality, or camera experience. Would a phone with a slightly downgraded 800 series processor still qualify as a true flagship killer? That’s a philosophical question for another day.
However, there are some potential risks involved in developing a Lite-style processor. Qualcomm has to draw the fine line between performance, features and pricing. The last thing anyone could want is a revamped Snapdragon 700 series chipset with a higher price tag. A sloppy, expensive Lite release like this one could hurt the Snapdragon 800 family’s reputation. We are already seeing this in the laptop space as underserved chips are introducing premium branding to drive more sales.
Another risk is that Qualcomm will bring out a Lite processor that is practically identical to the main chipset, but significantly cheaper. This could be a big win for consumers, but a problem for the chip maker, causing the company to miss out on its revenue as OEMs use the lite chip in place of the more expensive silicon.
We’ll just have to wait and see what Qualcomm plans to do when it finally unveils its new processors in December.
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