Qualcomm’s New Mid-Range Chips May Make Budget Phones Faster

Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon processors will add to the mid-range 400 and 600 series of processors for budget phones.

Qualcomm Snapdragon launches a new series of mobile chipsets.

(Photo Courtesy: YouTube)

Qualcomm, the company behind the widely used Snapdragon processors that power many smartphones, will be introducing three new processors later this year. The Snapdragon 429, 439 and 632.

These processors will add to Qualcomm's 400 and 600 series of processors. However, they will not be top-of-the-line products. They are mid-range processors within the two series and will offer faster processing in entry level mobile phones, at a lower cost.

Xiaomi Redmi Y2 is a selfie smartphone. (Photo: The Quint)

According to Snapdragon, the 429 and 432 will make phones up to 25 percent faster and will also save more battery than their predecessors, the Snapdragon 425 and 430 chipsets.

The 429 chipset will support a 16-megapixel camera or a dual 8-megapixel camera setup and a screen resolution of 720p while the 439 can support a 21-megapixel camera, with the same dual camera support.

The 632, which is a more high-end chipset will, according to Qualcomm, be up to 40 percent faster than the previous 626 Snapdragon and will support a display of up to 1080 pixels. It can also support cameras of up to 24 megapixels or a dual 13-megapixel setup.

The Snapdragon 800 series consist of Qualcomm’s high-end processors. (Photo: Phoneworld)

The 632 processor will also support 4K video capture and an LTE modem with carrier aggregation for faster browsing. With these new chipsets, phone manufacturers can offer faster phones at lower prices.

The new 400 series chips come with pin compatibility, which means that they will be easier to swap with the older ones, saving phone-makers the trouble of building new motherboards. 

We can expect phones with these new processors to come out in the second half of this year.

The 400 and 600 series Snapdragon processors are generally used in low to mid-range smartphones. However, Qualcomm claims the new 600 series chips have been used in high-end mobiles in many countries.