Qualcomm announces Snapdragon 690 with 5g support – update

Chip manufacturer Qualcomm has introduced its Snapdragon 690 chip. The soc includes a Snapdragon X51 modem with support for 5G at sub-6GHz frequencies. In addition, the chip supports 120Hz screens with a full HD resolution.

The Snapdragon 690 is the first chip in the 600 series with 5G support, the manufacturer reports. Previously, the company only offered socs with support for 5G in the higher segments, such as the Snapdragon 800 and 700 series. The integrated X51 modem only supports sub-6GHz frequencies, and offers a maximum theoretical download speed of 2.5Gbit/s, where the soc on 4G would reach a maximum of 1.2Gbit/s. The maximum upload speed is 660Mbit/s on 5g and 210Mbit/s on 4g.

The soc contains a Kryo 560 CPU, which is made on an 8nm process. The chip contains two Cortex A77 cores at 2GHz and six more energy-efficient A55 cores at 1.7GHz. Compared to the Snapdragon 675, the cpu in the new soc should perform up to 20 percent better. The GPU is an Adreno 619L, which according to Qualcomm is up to 60 percent faster than the GPU in the Snapdragon 675.

The midrange chip also supports cameras that can record 4k images with HDR. The Snapdragon 690 also offers support for 120Hz displays with a full HD resolution and QHD displays at 60Hz. The soc is also ‘802.11ax-ready’, with which the chip offers support for some WiFi 6 functions such as target wake time and wpa3 security. The first smartphones with the Snapdragon 690 will hit the market in the second half of 2020.

Update, 9:26: The Snapdragon 690 is ‘802.11ax-ready’. This has been adapted to the article.