• The Snapdragon 780G mobile platform is built on Samsung's 5nm node.
• It brings support for Sub-6Ghz 5G and Wi-Fi 6E. 
• The chip supports 144Hz refresh rate and other flagship features.

Towards the end of March 2021, Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 780G 5G platform for high-tier smartphones. Successor to the Snapdragon 750G 5G, and built on Samsung's 5nm process, the new chipset brings many firsts to the Snapdragon 7-series. The first smartphone to reap benefits from the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 780G 5G chipset is the Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G. Here is what the new chipset means for upcoming smartphones.

A Direct Competitor to MediaTek Dimensity 1200

MediaTek has been ramping up its portfolio to bring 5G chipsets to mid- and high-tier smartphones. In Q3 2020, MediaTek also became the biggest smartphone chipset vendor, having sold over 100 million smartphones globally with MediaTek chipsets. However, the 5G smartphone battle is far from over as the world's top two chipset makers race to bring advanced features and 5G capabilities to lower price points. 2021 will be a break out year for 5G smartphones.

The Dimensity 1200 made on 6nm process brings 5G, high refresh rates up to 168Hz and other premium features to the mobile platform, and it will be the immediate competitor to the Snapdragon 780G. The recently announced realme GT Neo is one of the first smartphones powered by the Dimensity 1200 SoC. Here is a quick look at the specifications and features of both chipsets.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 780G SoC: Specifications and Features

Powerful CPU and GPU with Improved Efficiency

The Snapdragon 780G 5G mobile platform is built on 5nm process node, same as the top-tier Snapdragon 888 5G. According to Qualcomm, the new Kryo 670 octa-core CPU architecture brings up to 40% performance boost. You should be able to experience it in day-to-day usage, be it quick app opening times, fast multitasking or more.

Just like the flagship 800-series, the Snapdragon 780G 5G also comes with a tri-cluster configuration. It features one ARM Cortex-A78 core clocked at 2.4GHz, followed by three ARM Cortex-A78 cores at 2.2GHz. While the Cortex-A78 are power cores, there are four ARM Cortex-A55 efficiency cores clocked at 1.9GHz.

On the graphics side, the chipset gets Adreno 642 GPU. Qualcomm continues to offer Snapdragon Elite Gaming Features for ultra-smooth gaming with support for up to 144Hz screen refresh rate at FHD+ resolution, 10-bit HDR rendering, jank reducer and game network latency manager to optimize network settings. The high screen refresh rate will not only add benefits when gaming, but also when you are watching videos on OTT platforms, scrolling though a webpage or social media timeline.

Source - Qualcomm

Built-in 5G Modem, Wi-Fi 6E Enable Faster Connectivity

The Snapdragon 780G 5G SoC features Snapdragon X53 5G modem-RF system, offering Sub-6GHz 5G connectivity in both SA (standalone) and NSA (non-standalone), Dynamic Spectrum Sharing and dual SIM 5G. It supports peak download speeds up to 3.3Gbps.

Another first making to the Snapdragon 7-series platform is the FastConnect 6900 system which enables Wi-Fi 6E with support for 2.4GHz/5GHz/6GHz bands and VR-class low-latency peak download speeds up to 3.6Gbps. Whether you are streaming high resolution videos or cloud gaming, you can be assured to get faster and consistent speeds. The chipset also comes with Bluetooth 5.2 support and the recently announced Snapdragon Sound platform, enabling superior quality wireless audio streaming.

Big AI Boost, Better Camera Experiences

AI has been an integral part of smartphone chipsets, enabling a lot of important tasks to improve voice assistance, photography, and more. The 6th gen Qualcomm AI Engine along with the new Hexagon 770 processor offers 2x performance improvements over the predecessor. It can deliver 12TOPS (trillion operations per second), a huge jump from 4TOPS in Snapdragon 750G.

As camera has become an important point of differentiation for smartphone brands, making another first to the Snapdragon 7-series platform is the triple Spectra 570 ISP. It can simultaneously process image streams from three cameras. It allows you to capture images from zoom, wide, and ultra-wide lenses at once. The feature also allows for super smooth autozoom when you switch between lenses while recording a video. While this was seen on Snapdragon 888-powered smartphones until now, it is good to see the feature trickle down to 700-series as well.

The chipset also adds support for up to 192MP camera sensor for still photos, and 4K HDR, HDR10+ video capture with over a billion shades of color. With a lot of users creating video content, be it vlogs or short videos on platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels, having 4K HDR support will enable users to capture more punchy and lively content.

With Multi-Frame Noise Reduction (MFNR) and Zero Shutter Lag (ZSL) at 30fps, the ISP supports triple cameras up to 25MP, dual cameras up to 64MP+20MP, and a single camera up to 85MP. It lets you capture and record blur-free photos and videos. Lastly, the camera also brings improvements in low-light photography, allowing users to click better, sharper and brighter photos in any lighting conditions.  

Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G: Pricing, Key Specifications and Features

As a part of mega product launches spread across two days (March 29 and 30, 2021), Xiaomi announced Mi 11 series smartphones, Mi Mix Fold foldable smartphone, laptops with OLED displays and more. The Mi 11 series includes three phones — the Mi 11 Ultra, Mi 11 Pro and Mi 11 Lite 5G. The Lite model starts at around $350 and is the company’s most affordable 5G smartphone made for the global market.

Source - Xiaomi

Xiaomi has focused on the display, fast-charging capabilities, cameras and design for the Mi 11 Lite 5G. Under the hood is a Snapdragon 780G SoC paired with up to 8GB of RAM (LPDDR4X) and 128GB (UFS 2.2) of onboard storage. On the display side, Xiaomi has gone with a 6.55-inch full-HD+ AMOLED panel with 90Hz refresh rate for smooth scrolling and visuals. The screen has a touch sampling rate of 240Hz, offering better and faster touch sensitivity. It also supports HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, which is not seen on many other smartphones in the market.

Source - Xiaomi

In the photography department is a triple camera setup featuring a 64MP main camera with f/1.79 aperture, followed by an 8MP sensor with an ultrawide angle lens and a field of view of 119-degrees. The third is a 5MP sensor with a macro lens, offering 2X magnification compared to normal macro lenses. The camera supports 4K video capture and eight cinematic video filters. Photography features like AI SkyScaping, which allows you to add different filters to the sky, are also included. For selfies and videos, there is a 20MP front camera sensor on board.

On the design side, the Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G is just 6.81mm thin and weighs just 159 gm. Besides the slim and lightweight design, Xiaomi has gone for an interesting set of colors – Citrus Yellow, Mint Green and Truffle Back – which look neat and clean.

Source - Xiaomi

Lastly, the 4,250mAh battery supports 33W fast-charging capabilities, with a charger included in the box. Other features such as Bluetooth 5.2, Wi-Fi 6E and Snapdragon Elite Gaming, dual speakers for stereo audio, and NFC also make it to the package.