Qualcomm has announced three new mid-range smartphone processors—Snapdragon 665, Snapdragon 730, and Snapdragon 730G—which focus on three things, artificial intelligence (AI), camera quality, and gaming performance. All these processors aim to bring faster processors at a much lower price tag.
The Snapdragon 665 supports up to 48MP cameras, while the Snapdragon 730 and the Snapdragon 730G support up to 192MP camera sensors. The company even claims that some of the Snapdragon Elite Gaming features, which were earlier limited to Snapdragon 8xx series processors, are now being included in the Snapdragon 665, Snapdragon 730, and the Snapdragon 730G.
Kedar Kondap, Vice President, Product Management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc, said, "With the introduction of the Snapdragon 730, 730G and 665 Mobile Platforms, we are bringing features such as sophisticated AI, exceptional gaming and advanced camera capabilities to a broad spectrum of devices at exceptional performance. Each iteration of Snapdragon drives immense innovation that will surpass customer expectations."
Let us have a look at detailed specifications of the Snapdragon 665, Snapdragon 730, and the Snapdragon 730G.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 Features, Specifications
The Snapdragon 665 mobile platform for smartphones is built using an 11nm FinFET process. The processor uses eight 64-bit Kryo 260 CPU cores (max clock speed of 2GHz), Adreno 610 GPU, and support for LPDDR4 RAM (maximum 8GB at 1866MHz). The Adreno 610 GPU can drive up to Full HD+ resolution screens and supports DisplayPort as well as USB Type-C video output. Connectivity features of the chipset include Snapdragon X12 LTE modem, Wi-Fi b/g/n/ac, and Bluetooth 5.0. Other features include the Hexagon 686 DSP, Spectra 165 ISP (with support for up to 48MP camera sensors), Qualcomm Aqstic audio codec, and the Qualcomm All-Ways Aware Hub.
Qualcomm claims that the 3rd generation Qualcomm AI Engine inside the Snapdragon 665 chipset is up to 2x faster AI processing. The Spectra 165 ISP featured inside the Snapdragon 665 brings supports for triple-camera setups, including up to 48MP resolution cameras, and 4K video recording up to 30 frames per second. The Snapdragon X12 LTE modem supports up to 600Mbps download speeds, up to 150Mbps upload speeds, Dual SIM Dual Standby, VoLTE, and VoWiFi. Other connectivity features include dual-band Wi-Fi b/g/n/ac with MU-MIMO, Bluetooth 5.0 (with aptX Adaptive and LE).
The Qualcomm Spectra 165 is a dual 14 bit ISP which supports up to 16MP dual-camera setups with MFNR (multi-frame noise reduction) and ZSL (zero shutter lag). It also supports up to 25MP single-camera setup with MFNR and ZSL. Qualcomm has also added support for 48MP camera sensors, albeit without MFNR or ZSL support. There’s support for wide-angle, ultra-wide angle, and telephoto camera sensors. 4K video recording at 30fps and slow-motion videos (1080p 120fps or 720 240fps) are supported by the Snapdragon 665 as well. The Spectra 165 ISP also supports hybrid autofocus, optical zoom, HEVC, AVC, and VP9 codecs. There’s support for Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging as well.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 Features, Specifications
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 is an 8nm chipset that uses octa-core Kryo 470 CPU with up to 2.2GHz clock speed. It uses the Adreno 618 GPU which supports Vulkan 1.1, DirectX 12, 4K HDR10 PQ as well as HLG video playback, AVC, HEVC, and VP9 playback. The Adreno 618 GPU can drive Full HD+ displays with HDR capability and HDR gaming. There’s Spectra 350 ISP, Snapdragon X15 LTE modem, and various high-end wireless connectivity features such as Wi-Fi 6 and dual-VoLTE.
The Spectra 350 Dual 14-bit ISP that’s used in the Snapdragon 730 chipset supports up to 192MP camera sensors. It is also the first Snapdragon 7xx series chipset with support for CV-ISP (computer vision image signal processor) and it supports hybrid autofocus. It supports up to 22MP dual-camera or 36MP single-camera with MFNR and ZSL. There’s support for a 48MP single-camera setup with ZSL as well. The Spectra 350 ISP supports 4K HDR10 or HLG video recording at 30fps, 1080p slow-motion video recording at 120fps, and 720p slow-motion videos at 240fps. Moreover, there’s support for 4K HDR videos with real-time Portrait Mode.
The Snapdragon X15 LTE modem inside the Snapdragon 730 chipset supports up to 800Mbps LTE Cat. 15 download speeds (4×4 MIMO, 3CA, and 256-QAM), up to 150Mbps LTE Cat. 13 download speeds (2CA and 64-QAM), dual SIM dual standby, dual-VoLTE, and VoWiFi. The Snapdragon 730 also supports other connectivity features like dual-band Wi-Fi b/g/n/ac/6 (with 2×2 MU-MIMO), GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo, QZSS, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, DisplayPort, and USB Type-C port. It has a low-power sub-system with AI, Hexagon Voice Assistant Accelerator, native DSD support, aptX Adaptive wireless audio, and Qualcomm TrueWireless Stereo Plus technologies.
Other features of the Snapdragon 730 include fingerprint readers, iris scanners, 3D face unlock, Qualcomm Adaptive Antenna tuning, Qualcomm Envelope Tracking, and Qualcomm Signal Boost. There’s support for Quick Charge 4+ support over USB-PD protocol.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G Features, Specifications
The Snapdragon 730G processor is pretty much like the Snapdragon 730, but with better gaming performance even though it has the same Adreno 618 GPU that’s used in the Snapdragon 730 chipset. It features some of the Snapdragon Elite Gaming features that were introduced with the Snapdragon 855 chipset earlier this year. Apart from 15% better graphics performance of the Snapdragon 730, the Snapdragon 730G also brings gaming enhancements such as support for QHD+ resolution, Wi-Fi Latency Manager and Jank Reducer. All the other features such as the Spectra 350 CV-ISP, Snapdragon X15 LTE modem, and connectivity features remain the same as that mentioned in the Snapdragon 730 segment.
