You would notice that most of Qualcomm’s recent launches are heavily focused on gaming which is apparent by the use of the suffix ‘G’ in the nomenclature. With more and more smartphone users taking up mobile gaming in the form of games like PUBG Mobile (now Battlegrounds Mobile India), COD Mobile, Free Fire, etc., it only makes sense for Qualcomm to manufacture SoCs that cater to people’s needs and it seems as though they have been doing a good job lately. The gap between their 700 and 800 series of chipsets is narrowing which is certainly a win for the end consumer looking to purchase a mid-range smartphone. The newly launched Snapdragon 778G 5G also promises to do somewhat similar — provide powerful performance on a mid-range smartphone with the help of new Kryo-based cores and a host of on-chip improvements. Let’s see what it has to offer and where phones with the Snapdragon 778G 5G would stack up against current-gen mid-range smartphones. Qualcomm is claiming a bunch of improvements in the multimedia experience provided by the Snapdragon 778G 5G along with better image processing for video capture compared to their existing chipsets.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G 5G Features
Up to 40% Faster Performance
The new Snapdragon 778G 5G is based on Qualcomm’s custom Kryo 670 CPU cores which provide a performance boost when compared to older mid-range chips from the company. Qualcomm is pitching the SD 778G 5G as a successor to the SD 768G 5G which itself was a slightly updated version of the SD 765G 5G. Phew, too many Gs for sure. The GPU on the SD 778G 5G is the Adreno 642L.
The Hexagon 770 DSP handles all the AI requirements. Qualcomm claims up to a 40% improvement in raw performance compared to the Snapdragon 768G which seems promising. However, we will have to test a device with this chip onboard to see how much of a difference it actually makes in real-world usage.
It’s all about 5G
Since 5G has become the norm on the majority of Qualcomm’s chipsets now, they should probably drop the 5G tag from their nomenclature and makes things a little simpler. If you didn’t realize already with the number of times that we’ve mentioned 5G in this article, the Snapdragon 778G does come with the integrated X53 5G modem with support for both mmWave as well as sub-6 GHz 5G. There is support for Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2.
Improved Camera and Multimedia Experience
Qualcomm has termed the Snapdragon 778G 5G as the chipset for the ultimate multimedia experience. Starting with the camera, the Snapdragon 778G 5G boasts of major improvements in terms of video capturing abilities. This is thanks to the Spectra 570L ISP which can process data at up to 2 Gigapixels per second. The Spectra 570L allows for 10-bit color depth photo and video capture which means you can see better colors in HDR. There is support for HDR10 video capture and portrait mode video as well.
This is just one aspect of the multimedia performance though. Displays paired with the SD 778G 5G can have a maximum resolution of Full HD+ with the refresh rate going as high as 144Hz and support for HDR10+ playback. The Snapdragon 778G 5G also includes Qualcomm’s new Hexagon Voice assistant accelerator along with their Aqstic audio codec and smart speaker amplifier to improve the overall multimedia experience.
Miscellaneous Features
The Snapdragon 778G 5G has support for India’s homegrown NavIC satellite system. The chipset can power up to 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM. It has support for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Elite Gaming features and Quick Charge 4+ for fast charging. In terms of the manufacturing process, the SD 778G 5G is based on the 6nm node and will be manufactured in TSMC’s foundry.
Smartphones with the new Snapdragon 778G 5G mobile platform will debut in the second quarter of 2021 which we are currently in, so we can expect to see brands like Xiaomi, Realme, Oppo, Moto, iQOO, and surprise surprise, even Honor launch phones with the Snapdragon 778G 5G soon in the upcoming weeks. Once we have a device powered by the Snapdragon 778G 5G, we will be able to gauge the actual real-world performance of the chip.
