Along with its new wearable-focused Snapdragon Wear 2100 chipset, Qualcomm today introduced three additional new, more traditional members of the Snapdragon family.
Starting with the highest-end of the trio, we’ve got the Snapdragon 625. The Snapdragon 625 is an upgrade to the Snapdragon 617 that was announced last year. The 625 uses 35 percent less power than the 617 while offering an upgraded Adreno 506 GPU and support for higher resolution cameras (up to 24MP with the 625, from 21MP on the 617). Other features of the Snapdragon 625 include an octa-core configuration, an X9 LTE modem for download speeds up to 300Mbps and uploads up to 150Mbps, and a 14nm LPP process.
Next is the Snapdragon 435, which is an upgrade over the Snapdragon 430 that was announced in 2015. The Snapdragon 435 shares many features with the 430, including an octa-core configuration, Adreno 505 GPU, and support for cameras up to 21 megapixels. The big upgrade with the 435 is an upgraded X8 LTE modem for faster top wireless speeds.
Finally, we've got the Snapdragon 425. This is the “entry-point of mid-tier,” says Qualcomm, offering upgrades over the Snapdragon 410 and 412 that include faster wireless connectivity and longer battery life thanks to its X6 LTE modem and Hexagon DSP, respectively. The quad-core Snapdragon 425 is a 64-bit processor that includes an Adreno 308 GPU, support for Quick Charge 2.0, up to 2x10 MHz carrier aggregation, and camera sensors up to 16 megapixels. It’s made using a 28nm LP process.
Qualcomm says that its new processors should begin appearing in smartphones in the second half of 2016.
Also announced today is a new Snapdragon X16 LTE modem, which is built using a 14nm FinFET process. The X16’s claim to fame is that it offers LTE Cat.16 download speeds of up to 1Gbps. That’s pretty darn fast, but it’ll probably be a while before we actually see wireless networks that can offers speeds that fast. Qualcomm expects the X16 LTE modem to begin appearing in products in the second half of 2016.
