In Summary
- Snapdragon 678 is an upgrade to the Snapdragon 675 mobile platform from last year.
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 678 has a CPU architecture consisting of Kryo 460 cores clocked at up to 2.2GHz and for graphics, it gets the Adreno 612 GPU.
- The Snapdragon 678 is not a 5G enabled chipset which makes sense given it is targeted towards affordable smartphones.
- There are good competitive chips from MediaTek too which will probably mean that the Snapdragon 678 will now move to a lower tier in terms of price bracket.
Qualcomm recently announced its flagship SoC, the Snapdragon 888 in its virtual annual summit which will replace the current-gen Snapdragon 865 on flagship smartphones in 2021. Today, Qualcomm has unveiled a mid-range SoC for affordable smartphones and they are calling it the Snapdragon 678 mobile platform. As the moniker may suggest, the Snapdragon 678 is an upgrade to the Snapdragon 675 mobile platform from last year which powered quite a few mid-range smartphones.
The Snapdragon 675 was a moderately powerful mid-range chip for its time and made its debut in India with the Redmi Note 7 Pro. It was touted to be faster than even some 700 series chips from Qualcomm like the Snapdragon 710 so it is fair to say that the Snapdragon 678 will in most probability be a good follow-up. Qualcomm seems to be focusing majorly on the immersive entertainment aspect of the Snapdragon 678 with claims of upgraded performance, improved camera features, and enhanced streaming capabilities.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 678 has a CPU architecture consisting of Kryo 460 cores clocked at up to 2.2GHz and for graphics, it gets the Adreno 612 GPU. Qualcomm’s Spectra 250L ISP aids with image processing from the cameras and can power sensors up to 48MP and can even shoot videos in 4K. The X12 LTE modem handles connectivity which means unlike a lot of new mobile platforms from Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 678 is not a 5G enabled chipset which makes sense given it is targeted towards affordable smartphones.
While the Snapdragon 675 was a powerful chipset last year even on phones that were priced around the Rs. 15,000-mark, mid-range chips have improved considerably in the past year or so with the likes of Snapdragon 730G, 732G, and 720G now being available on smartphones at the same price point that the Snapdragon 675 was last year. There are good competitive chips from MediaTek too which will probably mean that the Snapdragon 678 will now move to a lower tier in terms of price bracket. It would be interesting to see if smartphones around the Rs. 10,000 price point will sport the new Snapdragon 678 chip from Qualcomm.