Qualcomm has added another 7xx series SoC to its arsenal – the Snapdragon 780G SoC. This one comes with a host of features that have so far been limited to flagship chipsets. To recount a few, it is the first Snapdragon 7xx series SoC based on the 5nm process, the first one to offer a triple ISP architecture, the first one to come armed with the in-house 6th gen Qualcomm AI Engine, Wi-Fi 6E, and the new Snapdragon Sound suite of audio enhancements. Phones powered by the latest Qualcomm offering will arrive in the second quarter of 2021.

Based on the Kryo 670 CPU that promises 40% performance gain

At its heart is the Kryo 670 CPU running at a peak frequency of 2.4GHz, assisted by the Adreno GPU. Qualcomm is touting a performance boost of 40%, and also bringing a bunch of Snapdragon Elite Gaming tricks to its latest mid-tier SoC. On the connectivity front, the Snapdragon 780G SoC arrives with the X53 5G modem that is claimed to facilitate downlink speeds of up to 3.3Gbps. You also get support for Wi-Fi 6E, Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), and Bluetooth v5.2 rounding up the wireless connectivity suite. 

Coming to camera capabilities, Snapdragon 780G SoC offers triple 14-bit ISPs with the Qualcomm Spectra 570 Image Signal Processor at its heart. The triple-ISP design allows the phone to capture images from the wide, ultra-wide, and telephoto camera simultaneously. The new SoC also offers support for HDR10+ video capture and 4K HDR video recording assisted by what Qualcomm calls computational HDR to deliver better color, contrast, and details in photos as well as videos. 

Triple ISP design allows simultaneous image capture from three 25MP sensors

Snapdragon 780G SoC can drive screens with a peak FHD+ resolution at 144Hz refresh rate, and supports HDR10 and HDR10+ playback as well. Interestingly, support for RAM standard is listed as LPDDR4 (likely LPDDR4X too), but not faster LPDDR5 standard. Plus, it also brings compatibility for the new Qualcomm 3D Sonic Max ultrasonic fingerprint sensor by Qualcomm that is large enough to read two fingerprints at once.

The 6th generation Qualcomm AI Engine, working in tandem with the Qualcomm Hexagon 770 processor, is said to be twice as powerful as its predecessor and offers 2 TOPs AI performance. There’s also a dedicated AI processor to tune audio for higher clarity courtesy of the second-gen Qualcomm Sensing Hub, and support for the recently announced Snapdragon Sound enhancements are on the table as well.