Skip to main content

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 780G brings a performance boost to midrange phones

The Qualcomm 7-Series has offered near-flagship level performance at a much lower cost, and has been used in devices like the Pixel 5, Motorola One 5G Ace, and more. Now, Qualcomm is launching its most powerful 7-Series chip yet — the Qualcomm Snapdragon 780G.

The new mobile platform offers some features that you can only currently get on a Snapdragon 888. Notably, it has a Spectra 570 triple ISP, which basically means that users can capture video from three cameras simultaneously. In other words, you could take a photo with the zoom, wide, and ultrawide cameras at the same time. Or you could capture video from all three cameras, allowing you to edit video on the fly.

Recommended Videos

Apart from the triple ISP, the Snapdragon 780G also offers Qualcomm’s 6th-generation AI Engine, which is two times as powerful as its predecessor. According to Qualcomm, this helps the A.I. enhance phone calls and video calls, plus it should also come in handy when using a voice assistant. It also offers 5G connectivity and Wi-Fi 6, plus works with 5G — though it doesn’t seem as though it supports the high-frequency mmWave connectivity.

Google Pixel 5
Andrew Martonik/Digital Trends

When it comes to performance, the Snapdragon 780G comes with a Kryo 670 CPU that Qualcomm says should deliver a 40% performance boost. That should make it a good candidate for phones in the $500-$700 price range.

“Since introducing the Snapdragon 7-series three years ago, more than 350 devices have launched based on 7-series mobile platforms. Today, we are continuing this momentum by introducing the Snapdragon 780G 5G Mobile Platform,” said Kedar Kondap, vice president of product management at Qualcomm, in a statement. “Snapdragon 780G was designed to bring in-demand, premium experiences to more users around the world.”

Generally speaking, the 7-series has been a hit. Rumors suggest that the price of Qualcomm’s flagship chips, the 8-series, have been rising, leaving room for a more affordable series that still offers many of the more advanced features you would expect from a phone that costs over $500. It’s likely we’ll continue to see more phones with the 7-series, and specifically the Snapdragon 780G, considering that flagship phones these days start at around $800 and range well past $1,000. Qualcomm says devices with the Snapdragon 780G are expected in the second quarter of 2021, so they should be here pretty soon.

Christian de Looper
Christian de Looper is a long-time freelance writer who has covered every facet of the consumer tech and electric vehicle…
This tiny dongle will change 5G connectivity forever
TCL Linkkey IK511 5G Dongle against a blue background.

TCL is having a busy start to 2024. First, it announced a staggering number of new smartphones and two new tablets at CES, and now it’s unveiling something else at MWC 2024 — one of the world’s first 5G dongles that takes advantage of the latest power-efficient 5G standards.

TCL Mobile’s Linkkey IK511 is a pocketable new 5G adapter that’s powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X35 5G Modem-RF system, which debuted last year as the first 5G modem to support the new NR-Light “RedCap” standard.
5G for everyone, everything, everywhere
TCL Linkkey IK511 TCL

Read more
You won’t believe how I improved my phone’s battery life
The back of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, resting against a post.

Galaxy S24 Ultra Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Sorry for using that tired old clickbait headline, but in a roundabout way, it’s true. You genuinely won’t believe that I’m about to tell you something so headbangingly obvious about smartphone batteries.

Read more
Qualcomm’s newest chip will bring AI to cheaper Android phones
Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 artwork.

Qualcomm has a new mobile platform on the table, and this one targets upper-midrange smartphones and promises to bring some new AI tricks. The latest from the chipmaker is the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3, which technically succeeds the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2, but the company is comparing most of the improvements against the older Snapdragon 7 Gen 1. 
The new platform is said to bring a 15% boost in processing power, a 20% rise in energy efficiency, and a massive 50% jump in graphics capabilities. Based on the 4nm fabrication process, it packs a single prime core, a trio of performance cores, and four efficiency cores. Interestingly, these cores are clocked at a lower frequency compared to those on the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2. However, this won't be the only area where Qualcomm's latest sounds like a mixed bag.
Qualcomm says the new chip improves AI-assisted face detection accuracy, but it adds that AI also lends a hand at tasks like making sense of routines and how users interact with apps. There are also a handful of new software-side enhancements coming to the Snapdragon Gen 7 series for the first time. 
Those include an AI re-mosaicing system for reducing grainy textures in photos, bringing down noise, and video retouching. Support for Ultra HDR is also a first for the midrange chip. Spatial audio with head tracking and CD-quality wireless audio are a part of the package as well.

The Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 jumps to the X63 cellular modem that promises a higher downlink speed of up to 5Gbps. Interestingly, it adopts the Fast Connect 6700 Bluetooth + Wi-Fi modem instead of the speedier Fast Connect 6900 modem on the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2. 
The camera capabilities situation is also interesting. The Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 relies on a triple 12-bit ISP system, while the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 puts its trust in a more advanced triple 18-bit ISP architecture. The latter allows higher-resolution photo and video capture in single and dual camera configurations. 
In fact, the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3’s ISP steps down to 120 frames-per-second (fps) slo-mo video capture compared to the 1080p 240 fps video recording allowed by its direct predecessor. Overall, it seems like Qualcomm jumped into its parts bin and crafted a half-new midrange chip for Android phones.
Qualcomm says China’s Vivo and Honor are the first adopters of the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3. The first wave of phones powered by the new chip is expected to be announced later this month. 

Read more