Qualcomm today announced the Snapdragon 660 and Snapdragon 630 mobile platforms, two new systems-on-a-chip that the company says will dramatically improve speed, battery life, and photography for sub-flagship smartphones. The Snapdragon 660 succeeds the 653, while the 630 succeeds the 626. Shared features include the Snapdragon X12 modem, Spectra 160 dual image signal processor, Hexagon DSP, and support for USB-C 3.1, Quick Charge 4, Bluetooth 5, wifi, GPS, biometrics, and advanced audio codecs. One of the big advancements in these chips is the All-Ways Aware technology powered by the Google Awareness API. This lets the platforms monitor RF output and put individual radios into low-power mode when they're not needed. Qualcomm claims devices will experience up to two more hours per day with the Snapdragon 660/630 inside. Some of the camera-specific features include advanced electronic image stabilization for sharper photos and video, quicker autofocus, and more accurate color. Qualcomm say Quick Charge 4.0 should be able to deliver 5 hours of battery life with a 5-minute charge. The 660 relies on a 14nm process with the Kryo 260 CPU with eight cores in a big.LITTLE configuration (four cores at 1.8 GHz and four at 2.2 GHz). The 660 includes an Adreno 512 GPU. The CPU and GPU deliver 20% and 30% improvements, respectively, over those of the outgoing Snapdragon 653. The Snapdragon 630 has eight ARM Cortex A53 cores (four cores at 1.8 GHz and four at 2.2 GHz), and an Adreno 508 GPU with a 30% performance jump over the 626. The Snapdragon 660 is available to device makers now and Qualcomm expects to see it in hardware by the end of the quarter. The Snapdragon 630 will ship by the end of the month and Qualcomm expects to see it in hardware during the second quarter.


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