Qualcomm intros Snapdragon 450 chip for the mid-range

Qualcomm Snapdragon’s range of chips covers four tiers (200, 400, 600, 800) catering for all devices from entry-level to premium devices. Sony Mobile has traditionally stuck with Qualcomm Snapdragon for its high mid-range and flagship devices, such as the Xperia X that used the Snapdragon 650 and the Xperia XZ Premium which uses the Snapdragon 835 chipset.

Sony Mobile has used MediaTek for its entry and mid-range devices in recent years, but it doesn’t mean that this will remain the case going forward. Qualcomm has announced the new Snapdragon 450 chipset, the first 400-tier chip using a 14nm process, with a 1.8GHz octa-core processor (ARM Cortex A53) and Adreno 506 graphics.

Qualcomm says that the new chip is 25% faster in both CPU/GPU compared to its predecessor (Snapdragon 435), has better battery life, supports a dual-camera setup with real-time bokeh effects, can capture videos at 60fps, offers faster data transfer through USB 3.0 and has faster LTE connectivity. The new Snapdragon 450 chip also supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0.

We don’t know whether Sony will use this chip for its lower-range models, but you should expect the new chip to appear in mobile devices around the turn of the year.