I feel like there have been a lot more chipset launches than normal this year. If it is not Qualcomm it is MediaTek.

Yesterday, Qualcomm took the wraps off their latest mid-range 5G contender, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G

As the name suggests this sits between the SD765G and SD730G but with its adoption of the new Arm Cortex A77 cores it will quite like offer superior performance than the SD765G in CPU intensive tasks.

The TLDR of this post is that the chipset is effectively the same as the Qualcomm Snapdragon 690 but with higher frequency cores, faster memory and a switch from the integrated Snapdragon X51 to the Snapdragon X52 which allows them to support mmWave 5G.

I have regularly criticised Qualcomm and MediaTek for rehashing old chipsets as new, but that’s normally for year old chipsets being passed off as something new. In this case, the SD690 is already new, and this newer model offers a bit more performance.

The switch from the 600 to 700 series is a little odd though. If it wasn’t for the switch of modem, this would effectively be a Snapdragon 690G.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 768G and Snapdragon 732G

For the sake of this comparison, I will ignore all the limited release customised variations such as the Snapdragon768G and the Snapdragon 732G. Both these chipsets are currently limited to just one phone each (both Xiaomi), and I suspect they were custom orders made by Qualcomm specifically for Xiaomi.

There is also the Snapdragon 720G which is newer and very similar to the SD730G but it is too messy to compare each minor difference.

Chipset Comparison

CPU

The Arm Cortex A77 CPU was first implemented on the flagship SD865, this is now rolling down to the lower end. So we are now in that confusing transition where you have some chipsets lower down the ladder, looking better specced than the higher end models.

Both the SD690 and SD750G have the same CPU configuration but the SD750G has a 10% boost on its to A77 cores giving:

• SD750G
  • 2x Cortex-A77 at 2.2GHz
  • 6x Cortex-A55 at 1.8GHz
• SD690G
  • 2x Cortex-A77 at 2.0GHz
  • 6x Cortex-A55 at 1.7GHz

Then the older models are using the Cortex A76 cores

• SD765G
  • 1x Cortex-A76 at 2.4GHz
  • 1x Cortex-A76 at 2.0GHz
  • 6x Cortex-A55 at 1.8GHz
• SD730G
  • 2x Cortex-A76 at 2.2GHz
  • 6x Cortex-A55 at 1.8GHz

I feel like it is time that the Cortex-A55 is due an upgrade!

GPU

Things are less clear for the GPU as it is just a generically named Adreno GPU which Qualcomm say is x% better than another GPU.

• SD750G – Adreno 619 +10% performance over 730G
• SD690 – Adreno 619L – 60% more performance than the SD675, no idea how the L model differs from the normal Adreno 619
• SD765G – Adreno 620 +38% performance over 730G
• SD730G – Adreno 618 – no performance claims

Memory

One other small difference is that the SD765G and SD750G both use faster 2x16bit 2133MHz memory vs 1866MHz

Modem

With the Snapdragon765G and SD750G, they both use the integrated Snapdragon X52 modem which offers 5G NR Sub-6 4×4 100MHz and mmWave 2×2 400MHz

That allows a theoretical download speed of 3700 Mbps and uploads of 1600 Mbps

The Snapdragon 690 has the Snapdragon X51 which can only do 5G NR Sub-6 giving it 2500Mbps and 1200Mbps speeds.

The SD730G is 4G only with the older Snapdragon X15 LTE modem.

In reality, there will not be many times that the X52 with its mmWave will offer any benefit over the X51. mmWave has very poor penetration and is best used in dense urban cores and venues with large crowds. By the time Covid has cleared and stadiums and city centres roll this out, you will probably be using a phone with a newer chipset.

Phones with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G

This has only just been launched but it is rumoured that Samsung may be the first company to use the chipset with the Samsung Galaxy A42 5G, either that or it will use the SD690.

Benchmarks – Geekbench

No phones means no official benchmarks.

Back in August a leaked Geekbench benchmark of the Samsung Galaxy A42 5G came out with scores of 619/1799.

We don’t know which chipset that phone is using, either the SD690 or SD750G but the result is promising. The single-core score is a touch higher while the multi-core score is a little lower than the SD765G on the Realme X50 which achieved 612/1899.

Overall

The chipset doesn’t offer much over the SD690 but both chipsets look excellent giving consumers and affordable entry into 5G and offering more than enough performance for most people.