Though Qualcomm is pushing ahead with a 5G-first approach, even in the mid-range segment with the Snapdragon 765 series, the chipmaker has today announced a new chipset to cater to the needs of the 4G markets as well. Qualcomm has expanded on its gaming chipset lineup today with the launch of the Snapdragon 720G, which will bring enhanced gaming and connectivity features to the masses – especially in a market like India.
The Snapdragon 720G, as the name should tell you, sits right under the Snapdragon 730 chipset series in terms of nomenclature. This chipset is built on the 8nm architecture and packs new Kryo 465 CPU cores (two Cortex-A76 cores clocked at up to 2.3GHz and six Cortex-A55 cores clocked at up to 1.8GHz). Qualcomm claims that it will offer users a 60 percent performance bump in comparison to the Snapdragon 712 chipset.
This is coupled with the Adreno 618 GPU, which is the same GPU as the Snapdragon 730G and should offer you up to 75 percent performance gains. Snapdragon 720G also packs the Hexagon 692 DSP, improved Hexagon Tensor Accelerator, Qualcomm’s 5th-Gen AI Engine, and Qualcomm Spectra 350L ISP with support for up to 192MP photo capture and 4K videos.
Snapdragon 720G, along with the Snapdragon 460 and 662 is one of the first chipsets to support India’s NAVIC satellite navigation system.
The connectivity is one of the key highlights of this gaming-centric chipset. It features the Snapdragon X15 LTE modem, which supports 3-carrier aggregation, 4×4 MIMO on two carriers and 256-QAM modulation for fast download speed up to 800 Mbps. The chipset is WiFi 6-ready, so you will get access to features such as 8×8 sounding, WPA3 security, and improved power efficiency. Snapdragon 720G supports Bluetooth 5.1, FastConnect 6200, and TrueWireless Stereo technologies.
Snapdragon 720G also supports Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 4+ charging technology, which means you can charge your device from 0 to 50 percent in about 15 minutes. The chipset also supports USB-PD for faster charging. Here’s a quick recap of all the features:
Qualcomm says that we can expect smartphones powered by the Snapdragon 720G to be commercially available in the first quarter of 2020. Realme and Xiaomi, as one would expect, will be one of the first phone makers to utilize this chipset in their upcoming mid-range offerings – possibly the Realme 6 Pro and Redmi Note 9 Pro.
