Qualcomm's mid-range 6 and 7 series are getting new additions to their respective line-ups. At the 2019 Qualcomm AI Day, the company announced the new Snapdragon 665 and Snapdragon 730 mobile platforms. The Snapdragon 665 can be seen as the successor to the incredibly popular Snapdragon 660, while the Snapdragon 730 is the successor to the Snapdragon 710. Qualcomm claims the new chips offer major improvements in AI computing, imaging, and performance, especially with respect to gaming. In fact, gaming is one area where Qualcomm is heavily promoting their new chips; the company announced that the Snapdragon 730 will be joined by the Snapdragon 730G—a Snapdragon 730 with an overclocked GPU and several gaming-centric features.

Qualcomm is continuing their trend of bringing features from their premium-tier 8 series down to their mid-range chipsets. For instance, the Snapdragon 730 includes many of the AI enhancements introduced with the Snapdragon 855, while the slightly higher-tier Snapdragon 730G introduces several of the new Snapdragon Elite Gaming features that we first saw on the Snapdragon 855. Meanwhile, the Snapdragon 665 offers up to twice the performance in on-device AI processing compared to the Snapdragon 660, and improved power savings thanks to being manufactured on an 11nm FinFET process technology compared to the 14nm Snapdragon 660. Both Snapdragon 730 chips are manufactured on using an 8nm FinFET process technology, making them the first 8nm chips from Qualcomm.

The first smartphones with the Snapdragon 665, Snapdragon 730, and Snapdragon 730G are expected to launch in mid-2019, which is fairly soon. Here's an overview of each new mobile platform so you'll know what to expect when the first devices with the new chips are announced.

Disclaimer: Qualcomm paid for us to attend AI Day in San Francisco.


Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 Specifications and Features

In a head-to-head comparison with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660, the new Snapdragon 665 doesn't seem to offer substantial improvements. It's also weaker than the Snapdragon 670 in CPU and GPU performance, which is what you would expect given Qualcomm's branding convention. It's hard to see where the Snapdragon 665 fits in given the many mid-range chipsets that Qualcomm already offers, but the Snapdragon 660, despite its immense popularity among budget Chinese smartphone manufacturers, is an aging chip. The Snapdragon 665 could be the next big hit for low-cost, mid-range Android smartphones, overtaking the Snapdragon 660. The following table summarizes the key differences between the Snapdragon 660 and Snapdragon 665.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 (sdm660)

Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 (sm6125)

CPU

4 x performance and 4 x efficiency Kryo 260 CPU cores (Up to 2.2GHz)

4 x performance and 4 x efficiency Kryo 260 CPU cores (Up to 2.0GHz)

GPU

Adreno 512Vulkan 1.0 support

Adreno 610Vulkan 1.1 support

DSP

Hexagon 680

Hexagon 686

Memory

Type: LPDDR4/4XSpeed: Up to 1866MHz, 8GB RAM

Type: LPDDR3/LPDDR4xSpeed: Up to 1866MHz, 8GB RAM

ISP

Dual 14-bit Spectra 160 ISPSingle camera: Up to 25 MP, MFNR, ZSL, 30fps; Up to 48MPDual camera: Up to 16 MP, MFNR, ZSL, 30fps4k @ 30fps video

Dual 14-bit Spectra 165 ISPSingle camera: Up to 25 MP, MFNR, ZSL, 30fps; Up to 48MPDual camera: Up to 16 MP, MFNR, ZSL, 30fps4K @ 30fps video

Modem

Snapdragon X12600Mbps DL (Cat. 12), 150Mbps UL (Cat. 13)

Snapdragon X12600Mbps DL (Cat. 12), 150Mbps UL (Cat. 13)

Manufacturing Process

14nm FinFET

11nm FinFET

The biggest improvement over the previous generation is in AI performance. Qualcomm says the Snapdragon 665 offers "up to 2x faster AI on-device processing" over the Snapdragon 660 thanks to the 3rd generation Qualcomm AI Engine, improved Adreno 610 GPU, and two Hexagon Vector eXtensions (HVX.) Although the Snapdragon 665's Spectra 165 doesn't seem to offer many improvements over the Spectra 160 ISP in the Snapdragon 660, the improved AI on-device processing performance allows for faster scene and object recognition and improvements to other Computer Vision use cases like facial recognition.

Qualcomm boasts that the Snapdragon 665 can support triple rear camera setups including a telephoto, wide-angle, and super-wide angle lens, and that the ISP is capable of handling 48MP snapshots (in other words, not with ZSL). To be clear, these features are already possible with the Snapdragon 660, as seen by the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 in China and the Nokia X71. Qualcomm has partnered with Morpho, a company specializing in image processing, to bring support for their MovieSolid video stabilization software. It's up to each device maker whether they want to license this technology, though, so this technology isn't an inherent feature of the Snapdragon 665.

CPU and GPU performance haven't improved much over the previous generation, though Qualcomm says that the Snapdragon 665 offers 20% reduction in power use when gaming. Although, Qualcomm attributes this improvement to the Snapdragon 665 supporting version 1.1 of the Vulkan Graphics API, which obviously requires support from game developers. Overall, though, the transition from a 14nm to 11nm manufacturing process technology should yield slight improvements in power efficiency.


Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 Specifications and Features

The Snapdragon 730 is where things get a bit more interesting. It's manufactured with an 8nm process compared to the 10nm process of the premium-tier Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 and Snapdragon 845. Like with the Snapdragon 665, Qualcomm boasts twice the AI performance in the Snapdragon 730 when compared to the Snapdragon 710. Qualcomm attributes this improvement in on-device AI performance to a combination of its 4th generation Qualcomm AI Engine, more ALUs in the Adreno 618 GPU over the Adreno 616, improved performance in dot product instructions with the Kryo 470 CPU, and a tensor accelerator like on the Snapdragon 855. The Snapdragon 730 offers more generational improvements over the Snapdragon 710 than the Snapdragon 665 does over the Snapdragon 660, though.

The following table summarizes, at a high level, the major differences between the Snapdragon 710 and Snapdragon 730.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 (sdm710)

Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 (sm7150-AA)

CPU

2 x performance and 6 x efficiency Kryo 360 CPU cores (Up to 2.2GHz)

2 x performance and 6 x efficiency Kryo 470 CPU cores (Up to 2.2GHz)

GPU

Adreno 616

Adreno 618Vulkan 1.1

DSP

Hexagon 685

Hexagon 688

Memory

Type: 2 x 16-bit, LPDDR4Speed: Up to 1866MHz, 8GB RAM

Type: 2 x 16-bit, LPDDR4Speed: Up to 1866MHz, 8GB RAM

ISP

Dual 14-bit Spectra 250 ISPSingle camera: Up to 25MP, MFNR, ZSL, 30fps; Up to 48MP, MFNRDual camera: Up to 16MP, MFNR, ZSL, 30fps4k @ 30 fps video

Dual 14-bit Spectra 350 ISPSingle camera: Up to 36MP, MFNR, ZSL, 30fps; Up to 48MP, MFNRDual camera: Up to 22MP, MFNR, ZSL, 30fps4K HDR @ 30 fps video

Modem

Snapdragon X15800 Mbps DL (Cat. 15), 150 Mbps UL (Cat. 13)

Snapdragon X15800 Mbps DL (Cat. 15), 150 Mbps UL (Cat. 13)

Manufacturing Process

10nm FinFET

8nm FinFET

The Spectra 350 ISP in the Snapdragon 730 has integrated AI like the Spectra 380 in the Snapdragon 855. Qualcomm says its their first CV-ISP in their 7 series, providing "up to 4x overall power savings" in CV use cases compared to the Snapdragon 710. The CV-ISP also opens up the possibility for features such as depth sensing at 60fps and 4k HDR video recording with real-time bokeh. The Snapdragon 730's Spectra 350 can handle output from a single 36MP camera sensor with ZSL compared to the 25MP ZSL of the Snapdragon 710's Spectra 250. Although the Snapdragon 730 doesn't support 48MP snapshots with ZSL, the improved imaging performance should reduce the length of time it takes to process such an image, which is a problem we saw on the Redmi Note 7 Pro. Dual camera support has also been improved, with the Spectra 350 being capable of supporting dual 22MP shooters with MFNR and ZSL.

Qualcomm says the Kryo 470 CPU cores in the Snapdragon 730 offer up to 35% improvement in performance when compared to the Kryo 360 CPU cores in the Snapdragon 710. Games that are built with version 1.1 of the Vulkan Graphics API can run on devices with the Snapdragon 730 with 20% less power use when compared to games using OpenGL ES, according to Qualcomm.

Other enhancements in the Snapdragon 730 over the Snapdragon 710 include support for the Wi-Fi 6 standard, Qualcomm's aptX adaptive intelligent Bluetooth audio compression technology, and multi-keyword, more accurate voice recognition support.


Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G Specifications and Features

In case it isn't obvious, the "G" in Snapdragon 730G stands for "Gaming." Qualcomm says the Snapdragon 730G offers "up to 15% faster graphics rendering" over the standard Snapdragon 730. As a result, devices with display resolutions up to QHD+ are now supported, compared to FHD+ support on the Snapdragon 710. Qualcomm has also brought several gaming-related features over from the Snapdragon 855, including "Wi-Fi Latency Manager," "Jank Reducer," and "Anti-Cheating Extensions." According to Qualcomm, "Wi-Fi Latency Manager" optimizes your Wi-Fi settings to favor online gaming, "Jank Reducer" reduces "janks by up to 90% in games running at 30fps," while "Anti-Cheating Extensions" somehow detect when a player is cheating. Like with Huawei's GPU Turbo, there's probably solid technology underlying these features, though their marketing leaves a bit to be desired.

Besides gaming improvements, the Snapdragon 730G has a few imaging-related enhancements as well. Qualcomm says the 730G supports Cinemagraphs and 720p super slow motion video recording at 960fps. There's one major caveat with the 960fps claim, though: it only supports 960fps via frame rate conversion. That means that frames are interpolated to convert a 720p@240fps video into a 720p@960fps video. We've already seen flagship smartphones from Xiaomi and Huawei do this, but now we'll see mid-range smartphones boast 960fps capabilities via frame interpolation.

In a nutshell, the Snapdragon 730G is basically a Snapdragon 730 with an overclocked GPU and several Snapdragon Elite Gaming features. The following feature list is basically the same as the list from above, but I have bolded the few differences between the two platforms.