Qualcomms new CPU will bring 5G support to cheaper phones

Just as Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 765 brought 5G to mid-range phones last year, their latest chipset, the Snapdragon 480, is set to bring 5G to cheaper phones.

The Snapdragon 480 is the latest of Qualcomms low-cost 4-series processor options. Qualcomms Snapdragon 460 was used heavily last year in phones such as the Nokia 3.4, Oppo A53, Vivo Y20s and more which ranged around the $250-$300 mark. We’re expecting this new processor to power similarly priced phones when they start launching later this year.

The new processor will get a bump in speed, ‘up to 100% performance improvement in CPU and GPU’ says Qualcomm, when compared against the previous generation. There’s also support for triple cameras with a new image signal processor (ISP) on board.

The highlight of course is the inclusion of a 5G modem. The modem also supports 4G, but offers support for 5G download speeds up to 2500Mbps downlink on both mmWave and sub-6GHz 5G networks. At the moment Australian carriers are mainly rolling out sub-6GHz, however they are testing  mmWave, so this will let you connect to both without any worries.

The new CPU will also get better power performance thanks to the new 8nm manufacturing process, an improvement on the previous generation SD460 which used the 11nm process. There’s also support for Qualcomms new Quick Charging tech – Quick Charge 4+ – which can deliver up to a 50 percent charge in only 15 minutes.

There’s a lot of tech jargon in there, but essentially it means lower end phones are getting 5G support this year. Qualcomm says the first phones will be announced in ‘early 2021’ , and with CES just around the corner and other events coming soon we’ll be seeing new phones shortly.