Anyone who’s used a mid-range or lower phone in the last couple of years will know that you no longer need a top tier handset to get a smooth experience, and that’s soon set to be even more true as Qualcomm has just announced its newest mid-range chipsets, the Snapdragon 660 and Snapdragon 630.
They should offer improvements across the board compared to their predecessors, but there’s a particular focus on their photographic skills, with both offering smooth optical zoom, superior low-light photography, higher throughput for dual-lens cameras and support for 4K video capture.
That’s as well as overall improvements to image quality, more natural skin tones, better power efficiency, improved video stabilization and support for bokeh effects.
It's a pretty high-end assortment of features, and could mean that we start seeing dual-lens cameras on more mid-range handsets. The improvements to low-light photography are worth highlighting, since that’s typically an area where smartphones really struggle.
Beefy battery life and better gaming
Of course, these chips also offer CPU and GPU performance boosts, with up to 30% faster graphics rendering, which should be especially useful when gaming.
Despite all that extra power though they should be lighter on your phone’s battery, offering up to 2 hours of extra life each day, plus support for Quick Charge 4.0, which can charge your phone by up to 50% in just 15 minutes.
Even some flagships like the Sony Xperia XZ Premium only sport Quick Charge 3.0, yet these chips should make their way to lower-end phones.
Neither the Snapdragon 660 or 630 is actually used by any phone yet, but we’d expect to start seeing them in mid-rangers before the end of the year.
- They're still no match for the Snapdragon 835
