Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G 5G Aims To Boost Premium Phones

Qualcomm has introduced the Snapdragon 778G 5G, a new mobile computing platform that will complement its existing offering in the premium market, possibly at a -very slightly- lower price tier. This new processor is manufactured using a 6nm semiconductor process, whereas the 780G 5G is a 5nm chip.

We are not sure when the physical design of this chip started, but it seems like the 780G was the blueprint for it. Using a different foundry still require a lot of work, adapting the design to new transistor libraries to make it happen – this is no small enterprise. Qualcomm might benefit by reducing the chip supply risk by spreading the load to more fabs and have some pricing flexibility at the same time.

As a result, Snapdragon 778G is functionally very close to Snapdragon 780G. It has a Kryo 670 CPU cluster, Adreno 642 GPU architecture, Spectra 570 image processing unit (ISP), and an X53 5G modem. Both are very similar on the surface.

However, a closer look at the specs reveals that the 778G’s GPU is not Adreno 642, but 642L. The same thing is true for the Spectra 570L image processor. Both are slightly less performant than Snapdragon 780G’s non-L variants but still significantly faster than Snapdragon 768G. Qualcomm says that 778G has 40% faster CPU and graphics than 768G.

Many features, including the simultaneous triple-camera capture, originally came from Snapdragon 888, today’s best Android processor. The peak performance of the image processor isn’t quite as high, but it is capable of producing the same effects in “high-resolution” instead of super-high resolution.

As its name indicates, Snapdragon 778G 5G is Gaming-capable but also 5G-connected. It supports both sub-6 and mmWave 5G networks with the appropriate handset antenna configuration. That’s usually up to the wireless carrier or handset OEM to decide.

As a result, several OEMs are already on board, and the upcoming Honor 50 handset is one that I’m particularly interested in. That company has historically produced high-value phones with remarkable camera hardware for the price (according to our Uber HW Camera benchmark).

Hubert Nguyen
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: Honor, Processors, Qualcomm, snapdragon, SoC