625 build on 14nm while 650/652 is on 28nm (is it known now on what process exactly?), they need to (artificially if needed) keep those A72s on a leash, so they don't "embarrass" the custom effort.
Don't forget the 650 (then known as 620) was announced exactly a year ago - "expected to ship in consumer devices in the latter half of 2015". Wouldn't surprise me if they'd also announce a successor to the 650 built on 14nm at some point (some chips seem to get announced a lot earlier than others by qualcomm).
I don't think it is unusual for 14nm on the 625. The 652 is available now while the 625 is not available until 2H of this year. I'm sure that the successor to 650 and 652 will be 14nm.
The first to announce is relative.Mediatek hasn't released details on P20 but they talked about it and Mediatek itself has been forced to make this one, likely because of Spreadtrum. So chances are Spreadtum will be the first in the marketplace. Weird choices anyway, P20 is rumored at 2.3GHz, this one at 2GHz (or 2+) and nothing to get excited about, except power.Not dropping a couple of A72s in there feels like such a waste. Hopefully they cover the midrange better since A53s are being pushed towards lower midrange by SD65x.
The Snapdragon 625 is the most interesting one out of the three. Finally a decent A53 based option for the midrange from Qualcomm. The first one with Dual Channel memory which will make a significance difference. Is there an error in the listed bandwidth for the 625? Because I cant see it limited to 7.5 GB/s for a dual channel 32 bit RAM at 933mhz. Does not compute.
ANyway, If the GPU is not gimped, it should be a good performing mid ranger with good battery life.
The A53 core is quite a decent core with good balanced performance. The problem is companies are laoding them with low frequency desigs with poor single channel memory and terrible GPUs .
I have a Helio X10 based phone (Mx5), which is a high clocked A53 design with dual channel RAM and a half decent GPU. Runs magnificently with no issues at all.Handles everything that is thrown at it.
The Mediatek Helio P20 should have a GPU close enough in perf to the X10, without the throttling - the X10 does throttle - and overall with much much better power. Chances are this GPU will be around there too. Not that such a GPU is quite good enough for 1080p, it's somewhat passable though. Still SD650 , perf wise, is a lot more appealing and Xiaomi shoved it in a 150$ device already.
The article mentions Mid and Low-End Snapdragons. When I look at the table and see they all have A53's in them, that looks Low-End to me, even if they have eight of them.
If they want to call it Mid-Range, stick at least a couple of A57's (or equivalent) in on a manufacturing process which means they won't throttle after a few seconds in a smartphone environment (it goes without saying that high-end now needs A72's or equivalent).
How so? An A53 clocked at 2.2ghz has similar single threaded performance to a Krait 400 clocked at 2.3ghz. That is mid range or more by any standards. Pointless putting an A57 or A72 in there , especially where battery consumption is concerned.
A A53 based chipset with fast dual channel memory and a good gpu will beat a power hungry a57/72 based soc in terms of the balance between performance and power consumption.
A vast majority of mainstream smartphone users don't care if their phone posts 100k or whatever on Antutu as long as they get a good user experience. They do care about battery longevity however.
Currently in ownership of several Android phones, including an S6 and N6p. My meizu mx5 is a better performer than the S6. Nothing on the playstore has brought it to its knees, including heavy games like Nova 3, Mortal Kombat and Asphalt. Loads heavy sites without breaking a sweat. Basically does everything expected of a smartphone. It runs on a "weak" A53 octa Helio X10 clocked at 2.2, a Powervr G6200, and a dual channel DD3 RAM at 933mhz.
"Qualcomm thus is the first vendor to announce a non-high-end SoC to use a new FinFET manufacturing process which is quite astonishing as I hadn't expected vendors be able to do the migration so early on in the technology's lifetime,"
Maybe because Sammy is one of the first customers of QC given the Galaxy A9 is using it!. Hence, the drive probably due to Sammy's insistence!.
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kpkp - Thursday, February 11, 2016 - link
625 build on 14nm while 650/652 is on 28nm (is it known now on what process exactly?), they need to (artificially if needed) keep those A72s on a leash, so they don't "embarrass" the custom effort.pepone1234 - Thursday, February 11, 2016 - link
I think the 650 is 28nm HPM but yes, this movement is a bit strange. 14nm for a supposedly inferior SoC and the 650 fabbed in an older process.mczak - Thursday, February 11, 2016 - link
Don't forget the 650 (then known as 620) was announced exactly a year ago - "expected to ship in consumer devices in the latter half of 2015". Wouldn't surprise me if they'd also announce a successor to the 650 built on 14nm at some point (some chips seem to get announced a lot earlier than others by qualcomm).pugster - Friday, February 12, 2016 - link
I don't think it is unusual for 14nm on the 625. The 652 is available now while the 625 is not available until 2H of this year. I'm sure that the successor to 650 and 652 will be 14nm.bug77 - Friday, February 12, 2016 - link
Test new fab process on something that's not your flagship product has been done before.WorldWithoutMadness - Thursday, February 11, 2016 - link
Qualcomm is officially out of idea.Basically I just need to wait for MWC, SD820 release in the wild, let the survival to the fittest commence.
They quit making custom after Kryo and Google rumoured to design chip. I wonder if there is any corelation between the two.
zeeBomb - Thursday, February 11, 2016 - link
Interesting...sseemaku - Thursday, February 11, 2016 - link
Seems like just a refresh than major changesjjj - Thursday, February 11, 2016 - link
The first to announce is relative.Mediatek hasn't released details on P20 but they talked about it and Mediatek itself has been forced to make this one, likely because of Spreadtrum. So chances are Spreadtum will be the first in the marketplace.Weird choices anyway, P20 is rumored at 2.3GHz, this one at 2GHz (or 2+) and nothing to get excited about, except power.Not dropping a couple of A72s in there feels like such a waste.
Hopefully they cover the midrange better since A53s are being pushed towards lower midrange by SD65x.
jjj - Thursday, February 11, 2016 - link
seems that DDR3 support is a weakness for the 625 since the P20 went DDR4 and cost won't be much of an issue by the time these hit the market.jordanclock - Thursday, February 11, 2016 - link
The 425 and 435 have the same memory specs, but they are showing different memory bandwidths, 5.3 vs 6.4. Is that right or a typo?jjj - Thursday, February 11, 2016 - link
425 supports LPDDR3 667MHzhttps://www.qualcomm.com/products/snapdragon/proce...
Dobson123 - Thursday, February 11, 2016 - link
In the table, you list 2x 32-bit @ 933MHz LPDDR3 for the 625. Shouldn't it have twice the memory bandwith?zeeBomb - Thursday, February 11, 2016 - link
Good point. If it's twice...letssss gooo homeeeLiverpoolFC5903 - Friday, February 12, 2016 - link
The Snapdragon 625 is the most interesting one out of the three. Finally a decent A53 based option for the midrange from Qualcomm. The first one with Dual Channel memory which will make a significance difference. Is there an error in the listed bandwidth for the 625? Because I cant see it limited to 7.5 GB/s for a dual channel 32 bit RAM at 933mhz. Does not compute.ANyway, If the GPU is not gimped, it should be a good performing mid ranger with good battery life.
The A53 core is quite a decent core with good balanced performance. The problem is companies are laoding them with low frequency desigs with poor single channel memory and terrible GPUs .
I have a Helio X10 based phone (Mx5), which is a high clocked A53 design with dual channel RAM and a half decent GPU. Runs magnificently with no issues at all.Handles everything that is thrown at it.
zeeBomb - Friday, February 12, 2016 - link
A DREAM phone of mine is the pro 5...one day Andrei and his group of friends will have a chance to review it!LiverpoolFC5903 - Friday, February 12, 2016 - link
You mean the Meizu Pro 5? That has the same Exynos as the one in the S6.jjj - Friday, February 12, 2016 - link
The Mediatek Helio P20 should have a GPU close enough in perf to the X10, without the throttling - the X10 does throttle - and overall with much much better power. Chances are this GPU will be around there too. Not that such a GPU is quite good enough for 1080p, it's somewhat passable though.Still SD650 , perf wise, is a lot more appealing and Xiaomi shoved it in a 150$ device already.
etamin - Friday, February 12, 2016 - link
Why is Qualcomm continuing with the 2x quad-core configurations when the flagship 820 is regressing from it?PrinceGaz - Friday, February 12, 2016 - link
The article mentions Mid and Low-End Snapdragons. When I look at the table and see they all have A53's in them, that looks Low-End to me, even if they have eight of them.If they want to call it Mid-Range, stick at least a couple of A57's (or equivalent) in on a manufacturing process which means they won't throttle after a few seconds in a smartphone environment (it goes without saying that high-end now needs A72's or equivalent).
LiverpoolFC5903 - Friday, February 12, 2016 - link
How so? An A53 clocked at 2.2ghz has similar single threaded performance to a Krait 400 clocked at 2.3ghz. That is mid range or more by any standards. Pointless putting an A57 or A72 in there , especially where battery consumption is concerned.A A53 based chipset with fast dual channel memory and a good gpu will beat a power hungry a57/72 based soc in terms of the balance between performance and power consumption.
A vast majority of mainstream smartphone users don't care if their phone posts 100k or whatever on Antutu as long as they get a good user experience. They do care about battery longevity however.
Currently in ownership of several Android phones, including an S6 and N6p. My meizu mx5 is a better performer than the S6. Nothing on the playstore has brought it to its knees, including heavy games like Nova 3, Mortal Kombat and Asphalt. Loads heavy sites without breaking a sweat. Basically does everything expected of a smartphone. It runs on a "weak" A53 octa Helio X10 clocked at 2.2, a Powervr G6200, and a dual channel DD3 RAM at 933mhz.
fteoath64 - Monday, February 15, 2016 - link
"Qualcomm thus is the first vendor to announce a non-high-end SoC to use a new FinFET manufacturing process which is quite astonishing as I hadn't expected vendors be able to do the migration so early on in the technology's lifetime,"Maybe because Sammy is one of the first customers of QC given the Galaxy A9 is using it!. Hence, the drive probably due to Sammy's insistence!.