Qualcomm is bolstering its value line of systems-on-a-chip with the new Snapdragon 450.
As it has already twice this year, Qualcomm is introducing another so-called platform, a catch-all for its Snapdragon chips that power so many smartphones and tablets today.
This one, the Snapdragon 450, is aimed at budget phones, and aims to introduce a number of efficiency upgrades to help low-cost devices last all day like their mid-range and high-end rivals.
The platform is now built on a 14nm process, similar to the well-received Snapdragon 625 and recently-introduced 630, which Qualcomm says should give it up to four hours of additional battery life on equivalent tasks over the Snapdragon 435, which is built on 28nm.
Inside, up to eight Cortex-A53 cores at 1.8GHz keep things cool while moving smoothly, and the Adreno 506 is a very minor bump over the 505 inside the Snapdragon 435, though Qualcomm says, with thermal benefits and a minor clock speed bump the Adreno 506 should be up to 25% faster.
It’s clear that the performance upgrades are going to be of secondary importance to the story of this product compared to the battery gains, which should amount to up to 50% in some cases. The Snapdragon 450 also offers real-time bokeh through its support for dual cameras, the first in the 400-series.
On a connectivity side, the Snapdragon 450 supports Quick Charge 3.0, USB 3.0, displays up to 1080p, 1080p video capture at 60fps, and download speeds up to 300Mbps using the X9 baseband.
Look for devices to begin shipping with the new part in Q4 of this year.
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