Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 780G beefs up the midrange mobile CPU space

Enlarge / Significantly faster mid-range Android phones and tablets are on the way starting in Q2 2021. (credit: Qualcomm)

On Thursday, Qualcomm announced its newest midrange mobile processor-the Snapdragon 780G, a 5nm part that succeeds last year's 765. The Snapdragon 700 series is a midrange line that offers similar features to the flagship Snapdragon 800 series but at somewhat lower performance for significantly lower cost.

On the surface, it's easy to look at last year's Snapdragon 768G and this year's 780G and see a similar product: an octa-core processor with Adreno GPU. But although the core count remained constant, the types of cores did not.

Earlier Snapdragon 700 series SoCs used one "fastest" Cortex A-76 core, another "almost as fast" Cortex A-76, and six "slow-and-low" Cortex A-55 cores that can get background tasks done with a minimum of battery drain. The new 780G shifts things around, with three fast secondary cores and only four slow cores:

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