Snapdragon 625 vs 626 vs 630 vs 660 vs 636 vs 710 Comparison

The Snapdragon 625 and 626 are an older species, not so old from 2016, whereas Snapdragon 630 and 660 were announced in May 2017. The 626 was a minor increment over 625, while the 630 is here to take over the place of 626 in 2017. The Snapdragon 660 is Qualcomm’s 2017 answer to take over Snapdragon 653 and is the most powerful among the ones in consideration here. We have added details of Snapdragon 636 as well which just made its global debut with Redmi Note 5 Pro.

Without further delay, let’s take a look at the spec-sheet of all the processors in question. 

Snapdragon 660 - The New Boss In 600 Series

Now, let’s address the elephant in the room (Sorry! The biggest dragon in the room indeed). The Snapdragon 660 is a successor to Snapdragon 653 from 2016. Snapdragon 660 was announced in May 2017, alongside the previously discussed Snapdragon 630.  As the figures say, the Snapdragon 660 is the most powerful, latest and the greatest SOC among the ones under consideration here. 

As with Snapdragon 626 and 630, Snapdragon 660 improves greatly over the 653. The first major change stemming from the manufacturing process. The Snapdragon 660 in developed using 14nm process, compared to 28nm in the case of 653. Secondly, Qualcomm has introduced all new Kryo 260 cores in Snapdragon 660, switching things up for the octa-core ARM Cortex-A72 and A53.

Qualcomm has sealed lips on exactly what goes into making these new Kryo 260 cores, my guess is that we’re looking at some similar stuff that was used for Kryo 280 cores, of course with some minor tweaks and customisations. What is for sure is that Kryo 260s are arranged in familiar octa-core arrangement with 4 cores running at 2.2 GHz and other 4 running at 1.8 Ghz. Each having 1 MB of L2 cache, total 8MB of L2 cache, that translates to super fast performance.

Image Source: Android Authority

Forgot the GPU? No, we haven’t (Or you may say, Qualcomm hasn’t), the Snapdragon 660 has been upgraded with a more powerful Adreno 512, up from the Adreno 510 seen in the 653, which not only grants 30% gains on graphics workloads but also boosts the CPU performance by 20%. Well, that’s for brotherhood :)

Of course, Qualcomm’s latest mobile platform wouldn’t be complete without a host of advancements. The 660 has the same X12 LTE cellular modem as in 630, Quick  Charge 4 goes without a question. Bluetooth 5 and faster Wi-Fi with 11a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 GHz + 5 GHz) Up to 867 Mbps. The same loved Spectra 160 Image signal Processor with Hexagon 642 DSP unit with All-Ways Aware technology as in Snapdragon 630. 

It supports Type-C with compatibility for USB 3.1, that’s sweet. Don’t fret by technical jargon, For end customers like you and me, this means improved support for dual camera setup and advanced image processing capabilities, such as optical zoom and Clear Sight sensor arrangements, eye tracking, and depth mapping. Battery life has also received some extra attention, with Qualcomm suggesting that the 660 should grant users an extra 2 hours of battery life when compared to the 653.

The world is shifting towards AI more and more. Qualcomm being at the heart of this revolution through its mobile processors understands and is increasing its focus on Machine learning and heterogeneous computing. Both of Qualcomm’s new platforms(Snapdragon 630 and 660) can be used with machine learning algorithms through the Snapdragon Neural Processing Engine SDK, which offers support for Caffe/Caffe2 and TensorFlow.

Redmi Note 4 was powered by Snapdragon 625 and Xiaomi’s latest Redmi Note 5 Pro comes with Snapdragon 636 and more smartphones from different manufacturers will be seen showcasing this mighty dragon very soon.

One more thing: Snapdragon 636

Snapdragon 636 just made its debut with Xiaomi's budget device: The Redmi Note 5 Pro (See review, ratings, pros cons of Note 5 Pro). Overall, the Snapdragon 636 is built on 14nm and is very similar to Snapdragon 660. You can call it a lower variant of Snapdragon 660 as well. Most of the specifications are same, the main difference is the clock frequency of Kyro cores and the GPU.

Snapdragon 636 packs an octa-core Kyro 260 CPU setup along with the Adreno 509 GPU. These cores are same as the ones on Snapdragon 660 but the GPU is different. While the Kyro 260 cores of the SD 660 runs at 2.2 GHz; that of the Snapdragon 636 are clocked a bit lower at 1.8 GHz. According to Qualcomm, Snapdragon 636 is 40% faster than Snapdragon 630. This is also visible in our benchmark score where 636 is showing 30-40% gains over 630.

SD636 is optimized for Full HD+ 18:9 displays which is expected as almost all latest phones are coming with an 18:9 display.

Coming to the video, the Snapdragon 636 can record and playback 4K Ultra HD videos at 30fps and 1080p at up to 120fps. In-Camera department, Snapdragon 636 comes with Qualcomm Spectra 160 ISP and supports up to 16 MP dual camera and 24 MP single camera this is again similar to what we saw on Snapdragon 660.

Connectivity-wise, the Snapdragon 636 is similar to Snapdragon 660 and is equipped with the X12 modem and can facilitate up to 600 Mbps download speed and 150 Mbps upload speed through cellular networks.

Snapdragon 636 supports up to 8 GB of LPDDR4 RAM clocked at 1333 MHz.

Snapdragon 710 - Great Things Aren’t Always Expensive

Just when you start to predict Qualcomm, the company outdoes Itself and we have a rather intriguing silicon to prove our case here. Qualcomm showed off Snapdragon 710 to the world a few months ago, the perfect yet inexpensive beast bridging the gap between the budget-strong Snapdragon 600 series and the flagship overkill grade 800 series. Snapdragon 710 stands as the first 700 series chip, and we are already wooed. It takes most of Its learnings and capabilities from Snapdragon 800 series found in high-end smartphones, the likes of which have been aggressing towards $1000 mark, more often than not but falls easy on the pocket, while this might have been a utopian dream for some, It is not anymore. 

Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 can be cited as Snapdragon 845 lite version, with all the good parts. Snapdragon 660 - the best of Snapdragon 600 lineup is already a rock in the range with superb performance and cost efficiency, Snapdragon 710 takes it leaps forward. Coming to silicon and circuitry, Snapdragon 710 is fabricated using 10nm FinFET process, the same which the likes of Snapdragon 845 are done. This guarantees flagship grade quality, performance and power efficiency from initiation. The power-efficient architecture really shines out here, as the repercussions can be long-lived and greatly rendered like thermal efficiency or battery longevity. 

The SoC comprises of an octa-core CPU composed using BIG. Little technology with 2 Kryo 360 Gold cores (clocked at 2.2 GHz) and another 6 Kryo 360 Silver cores (clocked at 1.7GHz). Kryo 360 Gold cores are actually Qualcomm’s magic wrap on ARM Cortex A75 cores meant to do all the heavy lifting, while the Kryo 360 Silver cores are derivatives of ARM Cortex A55 cores designed for power-efficient processing. This configuration allows Qualcomm to levy 30% uplift in performance while cutting power consumption by up to 40% compared to Snapdragon 660. 

Moreover, gaming takes a new leap forward with Adreno 616 which in Qualcomm’s own words supports ‘lifelike visuals’ and ultra fluid gaming. Graphics rendering is faster, performant and efficient by a significant margin compared to the Snapdragon 600 contestants. Not only serious horsepower, thermal performance also takes a stride with Snapdragon 710’s GPU. 

As image processing gets better than ever, Snapdragon 710 brings a whole lot of promises to the mid-range cameras, courtesy - Qualcomm 250 Spectra ISP (Image Signal Processor) which supports up to 32MP single sensor shooters and up to 20 MP each dual sensor cameras with almost no shutter lag and some top crop features like Hybrid AutoFocus and accelerated EIS and of course 10-bit HDR. 

Flagship grade X15 LTE modem makes Its way into Snapdragon 710 with peak download speeds of up to 800Mbps and 150Mbps for uploads. Wi-Fi gets a makeover as well with Integrated 11ac Wi-Fi with speeds of up to 867Mbps, which is almost chilling to see in a mid-range SoC. 

Qualcomm’s Hexagon 685 DSP (Digital Signal Processor) enables a whole new league of features along with Qualcomm All-Ways Aware technology. On the audio front, we see Qualcomm’s AptX and Aqstic technologies alleviating the audio output quality. On the charging and power frontier, Snapdragon 710 features the very favourite QuickCharge 4+ technology, capable of charging smartphones from 0 to 50% in just 15 minutes. 

Qualcomm has been taking AI and Neural net support down to silicon as Snapdragon 710 supports almost all popular Machine learning frameworks like Tensorflow, Caffe, Caffe 2 etc. So, what you get is on-chip support for Machine learning tasks making a bold move in the mid-range. 

In all, Snapdragon 710 is the ultimate embodiment of power at a significantly less price, so that the mid-range can be showered with flagship grade performance and features without raising the prices. Snapdragon 710 has not entered with full force into the market yet with just Xiaomi’s Mi 8 SE as the only smartphone with the new SoC. We expect to see a lot more devices featuring 710 in the upcoming future.