Qualcomm has announced a new 6-series Snapdragon processor, the Snapdragon 690, destined for mid-range phones in the near future. Why should you care about it? Because it’s the first 6-series chip to support 5G, and that means the price of 5G phones is ready to tumble. By how much? For reference, the Nokia 5.3 has Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 665 inside, and can be purchased for 125 British pounds, or about $160, while the new Motorola Moto E has the Snapdragon 632 chipset and is yours for $149. Last year, Google used the Snapdragon 670 in the $399 Pixel 3a.
That’s a lot less than the entry-level
The octa-core, 2GHz Snapdragon 690 will use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X51 modem, which is not integrated into the chipset, and connect to Sub-6 GHz
Qualcomm’s not alone in targeting those who don’t want to spend $1,000 on a
Qualcomm says LG, HMD Global (the home of Nokia phones), Motorola, and TCL are all interesting in producing
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