With the mobile gaming industry expected to be worth more than $174 billion by 2021, Qualcomm turned its attention to building gaming-centric chipsets earlier last year. It expanded the 700 series to include the Snapdragon 730G gaming chipset, which we’ve seen on a number of premium mid-range phones from Xiaomi and Realme. It sure is a powerful chipset for mobile gamers but we are now seeing phones powered by the new Snapdragon 720G chipset in India.
Qualcomm recently launched the Snapdragon 720G chipset, which slots between the popular Snapdragon 712 and Snapdragon 730G chipsets. It’s the latest gaming-centric chipset from the company and aims to bring even enhanced gaming and connectivity features to consumers. But, the biggest question on your mind might be – How does the Snapdragon 720G compare to the Snapdragon 730G? Well, that’s exactly what we are here to find out today.
Snapdragon 720G vs Snapdragon 730G: Specs
Before we go ahead and compare the two chipsets in details, here’s a quick look at the specifications of the Snapdragon 720G vs Snapdragon 730G:
| Snapdragon 720G | Snapdragon 730G | |
|---|---|---|
| CPU Core | Kryo 465, Octa-core CPU | Kryo 470, Octa-core CPU |
| CPU Architecture | 2x 2.3GHz (Cortex-A76) 6x 1.8GHz (Cortex-A55) | 2x 2.2GHz (Cortex-A76) 6x 1.8GHz (Cortex-A55) |
| CPU Clock Speed | Up to 2.3GHz | Up to 2.2GHz |
| Process Technology | 8nm | 8nm |
| GPU | Adreno 618 | Adreno 618 |
| Machine Learning and AI | Hexagon 692 | Hexagon 688 |
| ISP | Spectra 350L | Spectra 350 |
| Camera Capability | Up to 192MP single Up to 16MP dual | Up to 192MP single Up to 22MP dual |
| Video Capability | Up to 4K @ 30 FPS | Up to 4K@ 30 FPS, 1080p @ 120 FPS, & 720p @ 960 FPS |
| Display | Up to 2520 x 1080 (Full-HD+), HDR10 Up to 120 Hz | Up to 3360 x 1440 (Quad-HD+), HDR Up to 120Hz |
| Charging | Quick Charge 4.0 | Quick Charge 4+ |
| Modem | Snapdragon X15 LTE modem | Snapdragon X15 LTE modem |
| WiFi Support | Wi-Fi 6-ready | Wi-Fi 6-ready |
In-depth Comparison
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CPU
Right off the bat, you can see that both the Snapdragon 720G and 730G are built upon Qualcomm’s 8nm fabrication process. This means both the chipsets are equally power-efficient. They both sport eight cores, with the same big.LITTLE configuration, but the internal cores and clock speeds differ ever so slightly.
While the Snapdragon 730G packs inside the Kryo 470 cores, Snapdragon 720G comes baked with the new Kryo 465 cores. Names aside, there isn’t a lot of difference between the two. Both the chipsets have two Cortex-A76 and six Cortex-A55 cores. The smaller cores are clocked at 1.8GHz in both chipsets whereas the big cores on the 720G are clocked 100MHz higher than the 730G, as seen in the table above.
Taking a look at the Geekbench and AnTuTu benchmark scores for Snapdragon 720G vs Snapdragon 730G, you see that both chipsets are on par in terms of performance. The AnTuTu score of both chipsets hovers around the 2,80,000 mark, with the 720G mostly scoring higher than the 730G chipset.
Geekbench paints a similar picture as the single- and multi-core scores of Snapdragon 720G and 730G are on par with one another. The Snapdragon 720G boasts a higher single-core score whereas the multi-core score winner went back and forth between the two. So yeah, in summary, we can say that both the Snapdragon 720G and 730G are equally powerful.
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GPU
Next up, the GPU has now become one of the most defining factors for phone buyers in India today. The PUBG Mobile craze doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon, so Qualcomm has included the Adreno 618 GPU in both the Snapdragon 720G and 730G chipsets. It also offers the Elite Gaming engine, along with features like the Game Fast Loader, Jank Reducer, HDR gaming, Game Anti-Cheat Extensions, and more.
If you are not aware, the Adreno 618 GPU is said to offer up to 75 percent performance gains over the Snapdragon 712 chipset. We ran the 3DMark benchmark app on devices powered by these two chipsets. The results, as you can see below, again show that the Snapdragon 720G and 730G are equal in terms of graphical performance. A marginal difference can be seen in the scores below but that’s almost negligible.
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ISP (Image Signal Processor)
Qualcomm has essentially baked the same Spectra 350 ISP in both the chipsets but here’s a minor difference between the two. Snapdragon 720G includes a downgraded, lighter variant of Spectra 350, dubbed the Spectra 350L but both support up to 4K at 30FPS video recording.
While both the Snapdragon 720G and Snapdragon 730G support 4K at 30FPS recording, the latter further has support for Porttrait Mode, 1080p slo-mo at 120 FPS, and 720p slo-mo video capture at 960 FPS.
Apart from videos, both the Snapdragon 730G and 720G support up to 192MP photo capture and you can check out the supported multi-camera setups in the table above.
Editor’s Note: This section has been updated to reflect that Snapdragon 730G doesn’t support 4K at 60FPS video recording. A minor confusion with 4K/60FPS video playback caused the error.
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AI Capabilities
With the growing use-cases of smartphones, Qualcomm is constantly improving its AI Engine with each chipset iteration. Same is the case with Snapdragon 720G and 730G. While the former comes equipped with the Hexagon 688 DSP (4th-gen AI Engine), the latter features the Hexagon 692 DSP. The chipmaker is offering a 5th-gen AI Engine aboard the latest Snapdragon 720G chipset, along with the improved Hexagon Tensor Accelerator and Scalar Accelerator.
We ran the AI Benchmark app on devices powered by both the Snapdragon 720G and 730G, well, to see the improvements that Qualcomm has debuted with its new chipset. And, the results attached below reveal that the Hexagon 692 DSP does bring some AI improvements, thus, offering improved experience with AI assistant and image editing apps.
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Connectivity
Finally, Snapdragon 720G and 730G are exactly the same in terms of connectivity. Both the chipsets come equipped with the Snapdragon X15 LTE modem, offering peak download speeds up to 800Mbps and upload speeds up to 150Mbps. Both chipsets are 802.11ax (or Wi-Fi 6) ready, supports Bluetooth 5.0, Dual SIM Dual VoLTE, VoWiFi (i.e. voice over Wi-Fi), and more.
One thing that sets the Snapdragon 720G apart from the 730G here is the support for India’s NavIC positioning system. If you own a device backed by Snapdragon 720G, your device will be able to latch on to any of the six NavIC satellites for improved GPS support. You can check if your device supports NavIC or not using the apps listed here.
Snapdragon 720G vs Snapdragon 730G: Which One Would You Pick?
Now that we have taken a closer look at the internal specifications and benchmarks for both the Snapdragon 720G and Snapdragon 730G gaming-centric chipset, we can only reach a single conclusion. One is not better than the other. The Snapdragon 720G, as assumed, does not slot between the Snapdragon 730G and 712 instead, it’s similar to Snapdragon 730G in terms of overall CPU and GPU performance.
Snapdragon 730G does have an upper hand in the camera department, well, because of the more powerful ISP but otherwise, both the Snapdragon 720G and 730G are equally power-efficient. You can’t go wrong with a device powered by either of the two chipsets. That’s my take on Snapdragon 720G vs Snapdragon 730G, but which do you prefer and why? Let us know in the comments below.
