Qualcomm’s mid-range Snapdragon 670 is focused on AI

While Qualcomm’s recently announced Snapdragon 700 chip seemed like its answer for AI in lower cost phones, the company hasn’t forgotten about its mid-tier series. The new Snapdragon 670 also centers on speedier AI performance when it comes to computer vision, as it’s around 1.8-times faster than the previous generation Snapdragon 660. Notably, the Hexagon 685 DSP delivering all of that speed first appeared on the high-end Snapdragon 845 last December. It’s also part of the technology powering the HDR+ algorithm on Google’s Pixel 2, so there’s a good chance it’ll lead to better looking photos on cheaper phones.

The Snapdragon 670’s Adreno 615 GPU is 25 percent faster than before, making it even better suited for games (which will also see a benefit from the faster AI performance). And the new Kryo 360 CPU is 15 percent faster than the last chip. That’s not a huge jump, but any gains are welcome in mainstream phones. Qualcomm claims it’ll be better at handling several high-intensity tasks without eating up as much battery life, as well. It’s assisted by the Spectra 250 image processor, which can shoot 4K video while using 30 percent less power than before.

It’ll be interesting to see what sorts of devices will get the Snapdragon 670, compared to the 700 series. The latter was supposed to straddle the line between mid-range and the higher-end 800 series, but at this point the 670 seems like a worthy contender for that spot, as well.