Qualcomm Snapdragon 690 5G Announced, Supports 4K HDR Capture, 120Hz Displays, NavIC, More

Qualcomm Snapdragon 690 5G mobile platform is official, making it the first SoC in the series to support 5G. It features the Snapdragon X51 5G modem, Qualcomm's fifth generation AI engine, and support for new multimedia capabilities such as 4K HDR video capture, up to 120Hz refresh rate displays, and improved CPU and GPU performance, compared to the Snapdragon 675 SoC.

This new chipset is said to usher in more affordable 5G Android devices that should be launching in the second half of this year. The first batch of OEM partners that will offer the Snapdragon 690 5G will be HMD Global, LG Electronics, Motorola, Sharp, TCL, and Wingtech.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 690

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 690 5G is built on Samsung's 8nm fabrication process and features eight Kryo 560 CPU cores and an Adreno 619L GPU. The CPU cores are split into two main Cortex-A77 cores running up to 2GHz and six Cortex-A55 companion cores running at up to 1.7GHz. Compared to the Snapdragon 675, the new chip is said to offer up to 20 percent better CPU and up to 60 percent faster graphics performance.

The Snapdragon X51 integrated modem supports up to 2.5GB/s download and up to 660Mbps upload speeds over 5G networks. The modem also supports various 5G technologies such as standalone (SA), non-standalone (NSA) modes, the sub-6GHz bands, TDD, FDD and dynamic Spectrum sharing.

Multimedia tasks should receive a good boost in performance, thanks to the ability to record in HDR10 format and support for much faster refresh rate displays. There's also support for Qualcomm's FastConnect 6200 system that brings Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.1, and 2x2 MU-MIMO configurations. The chipset can address up to 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM and supports India's NavIC satellite navigation system, among others.

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