Qualcomm today announced the Snapdragon 780G chipset, which will enable triple concurrent cameras on more affordable smartphones throughout much of this year.
The big jump with the 780G is support for triple image signal processors, which we first saw on the Snapdragon 888. Using three cameras at the same time allows for seamless zooming between different cameras, better digital zoom combining multiple cameras, and tricks like taking photos with multiple cameras at once and letting the user pick their preference afterwards.
The chipset also adds new network support. It comes with Bluetooth 5.2 and Wi-Fi 6 with an option for Wi-Fi 6E, and its X53 5G modem looks like a half-bandwidth version of the new X60, with more flexibility to combine different 5G channels than we saw on last year's chipsets. But it doesn't support millimeter-wave, which means you're unlikely to see it in Verizon phones.
Qualcomm hasn't released benchmarks for the 780G, but it has a Kryo 670 CPU at up to 2.4GHz and an Adreno 642 GPU, with support for up to 16GB of DDR4 memory. That CPU and GPU have not been seen before, and Qualcomm did not give details in its announcement, but the 670 is probably a reduced version of the new Kryo 680 from the Snapdragon 888. The Adreno 642 fits numerically between the GPUs from the Snapdragon 855 and 865, so it's probably nowhere near as powerful as the 888's Adreno 660. Phones with the 780G chipset will have 1080p, not QHD displays, but those screens will run at up to 144Hz.
The 700 series of chipsets has been very popular with phone makers looking to cut a cost corner while still providing a higher-end experience. Here in the US, we've seen it on the Google Pixel 5, LG Wing, Nokia 8.3 5G, Moto Edge, Moto Razr 5G, and the AT&T version of the LG Velvet, for example.
Qualcomm says to expect 780-based phones to start appearing in the second quarter of this year. I think they'll be popular with T-Mobile, because of a key feature in the X60/X53: FDD/TDD sub-6 5G aggregation support. That lets 780G-based devices combine T-Mobile's low-band and mid-band 5G networks for better 5G performance.
But we could also see the 780G popping up in devices from manufacturers like Motorola, which tries to save a buck and get 5G into $400-$500 phones. For example, the 780G could power some of the first phones specifically targeted at next year's Verizon C-band network.
About Those Custom Snapdragons...
Qualcomm's product lineup has gotten quite Byzantine over the past few months. Xiaomi just released the Poco X3 Pro, a new phone based on a "new" Snapdragon 860 chipset; Qualcomm confirmed that it's "a follow-on" to the 855+ with support for 16GB of RAM. The new OnePlus 9R, in India, has a Snapdragon 870, which is a slightly tweaked 865+.
It's clear to me that phone makers are demanding "new" products for old prices, for marketing reasons. So whereas a few years ago, a phone maker would have used the previous year's chipset when they wanted to save a buck, now saying they're using an 860 or an 870 lets them market their new phones without the stigma of an old component.
The 860 and 870 are unlikely to appear in US phones, as US buyers aren't as spec-sheet-sensitive as Asian buyers tend to be. (Americans generally just buy whatever phone the wireless carrier store rep hands them.) The 780G, on the other hand, has much more potential here.