Snapdragon 439 and Snapdragon 632 REVIEW new budget processors 2019

Qualcomm has been actively expanding and creating new processor series, ranging from budget to flagship solutions. If earlier the company had a clear sequence of products, the numbering corresponded to certain specifications, then now Qualcomm is not so good. For example, Snapdragon 675 processor is better than Snapdragon 710 and much better than the closest fellow Snapdragon 660.

Qualcomm also began a massive rebranding, and if the names of chipsets with three digits used to be familiar, now Qualcomm decided to add “0” to all the products at the end. So there will be Snapdragon 6150 and 7150, as well as flagship processor Snapdragon 8150, which very soon will be officially.

In general, something wrong has been happening to Qualcomm lately. However, another thing is important for us – the processors are still the best one on mobile market. After all, no matter how good on paper are Exynos or Kirin, Mediatek, but in practice they are behind Qualcomm in terms of 3D graphics, ISP and DSP processors.

While Qualcomm is preparing for release of flagship chipset Snapdragon 8150, we will review very interesting budget processors called Snapdragon 439 and 632. Also, we will talk about first smartphones on Snapdragon 439 and Snapdragon 632 processors.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 439: Specifications

The new Snapdragon 439 processor is a budget solution based on the developments of Snapdragon 435 and Snapdragon 450. It is an improved Snapdragon 435, because there are similarities in graphics core as well as ISP core.

In fact, Qualcomm simply took its predecessor, reduced its manufacturing process from 28 nanometers to 12, increased the frequency of Cortex-A53 cores from 1.4 GHz to 1.95 GHz, lowered the modem from LTE Category 9 to Category 6. So, when choosing a smartphone on Snapdragon 435 or Snapdragon 439, it is much more logical and more appropriate to take with the second chipset. It is much more energy efficient than the first one.

For example, if the smartphone on Snapdragon 435 has 4000mAh battery, then a mobile device on Snapdragon 439 will have 3200mAh. A modern process technology is not only low energy consumption, but also low heating. It has a beneficial effect on battery life and the smartphone as a whole.

If you choose from Snapdragon 439 or Snapdragon 450, it is better to give preference to the second one, because it another better performance. In general, there are no fundamental differences, and SD450 is 14nm process technology, but it has a more powerful Adreno 506 graphics core. In addition, it is slightly better for photo processing, and it has a faster LTE Cat 9.

However, if to sum up, Snapdragon 439 will be quite good chipset. Yes, this is not a gaming processor, but it is a modern, energy-efficient chipset with enough power.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 439: Comparison

SD435	SD439	SD450
Technological process: 28 nm LP; CPU features: 8 Cortex-A53 cores with a frequency of up to 1.4 GHz; GPU specifications: Adreno 505, 500 MHz or higher. Support OpenGL ES 3.1+, OpenCL 2.0; RAM: LPDDR3 with a frequency of 800 MHz, 1-channel, the maximum number of up to 6 GB; ISP: 14-bit dual-core ISP. Work with dual cameras up to 8 MP or single up to 21 MP, hybrid autofocus, shooting video in Full HD up to 30 fps; DSP: Hexagon DSP, hub sensors All-Ways Aware from Qualcomm; Work with displays up to Full HD + up to 60 Hz (1920×1200) and external monitors up to Full HD; Display Port and USB 2.0; Charging: Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0; LTE: Snapdragon X9 modem, LTE Cat.13 with download speeds up to 300 Mbps, LTE Cat.7 upload speeds up to 100 Mbps, frequency aggregation 2×20 MHz; Support for two SIM cards in VoLTE mode, support for Voice over Wi-Fi, calls over Wi-Fi; Wi-Fi: 802.11ac Wave 2 protocol, 802.11ac 2×2 protocol with MIMO and two networks simultaneously: 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz; Bluetooth 5.0; Navigation: GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo. Energy efficient geolocation and tracking thanks to auxiliary navigation sensors.	The process technology: 12 nm FinFET; CPU features: 8 Cortex-A53 cores up to 1.95 GHz; GPU specifications: Adreno 505, 500 MHz or higher. Support OpenGL ES 3.1+, OpenCL 2.0, Vulkan 1.x; RAM: LPDDR3 with a frequency of 933 MHz, 1-channel, the maximum number of up to 6 GB; ISP: 14-bit dual-core ISP. Work with dual cameras up to 8 MP or single up to 21 MP, hybrid autofocus, shooting video in Full HD up to 30 fps; DSP: Hexagon 536 DSP, hub of All-Ways Aware sensors from Qualcomm; Work with displays up to Full HD + up to 60 Hz (2520×1080) and external monitors up to Full HD; Display Port and USB 2.0; Charging: Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0; LTE: Snapdragon X6 modem, LTE Cat.5 with download speeds up to 150 Mbps, LTE Cat.4 upload speeds up to 75 Mbps, aggregation of frequencies 1×20 MHz; Support for two SIM cards in VoLTE mode, support for Voice over Wi-Fi, calls over Wi-Fi; Wi-Fi: 802.11ac Wave 2 protocol, 802.11ac 2×2 protocol with MIMO and two networks simultaneously: 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz; Bluetooth 4.1; Navigation: GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo. Energy efficient geolocation and tracking thanks to auxiliary navigation sensors.	Technological process: 14 nm LPP; CPU features: 8 Cortex-A53 cores up to 1.8 GHz; GPU specifications: Adreno 506, frequency 550 MHz or higher. Support OpenGL ES 3.1+, OpenCL 2.0; RAM: LPDDR3 with a frequency of 933 MHz, 1-channel, the maximum number of up to 6 GB; ISP: 14-bit dual-core ISP. Work with dual cameras up to 8 MP or single up to 21 MP, hybrid autofocus, shooting video in Full HD up to 60 fps; DSP: Hexagon DSP, hub sensors All-Ways Aware from Qualcomm; Work with displays up to Full HD + up to 60 Hz (1920×1200) and external monitors up to Full HD; Display Port and USB 3.0; Charging: Qualcomm QuickCharge 3.0; LTE: Snapdragon X9 modem, LTE Cat.13 with download speeds up to 300 Mbps, LTE Cat.7 upload speeds up to 150 Mbps, frequency aggregation 2×20 MHz; Support for two SIM cards in VoLTE mode, support for Voice over Wi-Fi, calls over Wi-Fi; Wi-Fi: 802.11ac Wave 2 protocol, 802.11ac 2×2 protocol with MIMO and two networks simultaneously: 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz; Bluetooth 4.1; Navigation: GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo. Energy efficient geolocation and tracking thanks to auxiliary navigation sensors.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 439: List of Smartphones

So far, there is only one smartphone on Snapdragon 439. It is called Vivo Y73. November 15, Vivo company will present the next device on this processor called Y93. Although chipset supports Full HD displays, the manufacturer uses only HD+. From other side, it can be smart decision, because heavy games on Full HD+ screen and Adreno 505 graphics will be very slow.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 632: Specifications

Earlier we talked about the recent problems with the sequence of processors in Qualcomm. The chipsets with a smaller index are more powerful than processors with a higher index. Why new Snapdragon 632 is much worse than the older Snapdragon 630? We don’t know.

What is Snapdragon 632? If don’t go into the details, then this is Snapdragon 625 re-packaged into new processor cores. Now, instead of Cortex-A53, the processor works on Kryo 250 custom cores. Yes, they are 25-30% more powerful than the stock ARM kernel Cortex-A53, but if you compare Snapdragon 632 with Snapdragon 630, then this upgrade becomes uninteresting.

Comparing the two processors, it becomes clear that Snapdragon 632 dragon has a more powerful CPU core, but a weaker GPU core – Adreno 506. Of course, Snapdragon 630 has not the best graphics, but it is good Adreno 508. In general, Adreno 506 is the graphics from Snapdragon 625, which is already more than 2 years old.

Snapdragon 630 uses dual-channel LPDDR4 RAM with a frequency of up to 1333 MHz, while Snapdragon 632 has old LPDDR3 with one channel at 933 MHz. This is a serious difference, and new processor has slower RAM speed. As you know, this is the most important component in performance.

We have no assumptions at all, why Qualcomm has released Snapdragon 632, which is worse than Snapdragon 630 in everything. But at the same time it offers the mysterious custom and ultra-fast Kryo 250 cores.

There is no sense to compare Snapdragon 636 with Snapdragon 632. It is clear that SD632 is much better, even if it is inferior to SD630, because Snapdragon 636 also offers Kryo custom kernels, but 260.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 632: List of Smartphones

So far, only two smartphones have been released on Snapdragon 632: Meizu Note 8 and Huawei Honor 8C. We are not sure that Snapdragon 632 will be popular processor, and most likely manufacturer will prefer Snapdragon 636 or Snapdragon 630.