Last year, Google took a risk by abandoning the top-of-the-range Qualcomm Snapdragon chips for the Pixel 5. Instead, it opted for the mid-range Snapdragon 765G, which allowed the company to keep costs down while still delivering 5G connectivity.
Assuming Google has the same plan in place for the Pixel 6, we may have got our first look at the SoC that’ll be running the show. The Telegram channel XiaomiUI (not affiliated with the electronics manufacturer, despite the name) has leaked what appears to be a Qualcomm document outlining the top-line specs for the Snapdragon 775.
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Separately, XDA Developers’ own sources have confirmed the contents of the leak, but added that the shared images are a little out of date. So while the broad strokes of what follows are likely confirmed, there may be some changes for the finished chip.
The Snapdragon 775 and 775G (G versions have slightly better gaming performance) will apparently be manufactured via a 5nm process, improving on the 7nm approach taken with the 765. That should mean both stronger performance and greater efficiency for less battery drain.
On top of this, the Snapdragon 775 chips are set to support 3,200MHz LPDDR5 or 2,400MHz LPDDR4X RAM and up to UFS 3.1 storage. The chip’s Spectra 570 ISP can apparently handle up to three 28MP cameras at the same time, and will support 4K video recording at 60fps. As you would hope with a chipset to debut in 2021, mmWave 5G support is built in, too.
These are all positives, but we’ll have to see how much faster the chip is over its predecessor to know if this is the home run we’re hoping for. Handsets using the Snapdragon 765 — like the Pixel 5 and OnePlus Nord — got warm reviews from us in part because they felt snappy and responsive in most tasks. Even if they weren’t technically as capable as Snapdragon 865 powered handsets like the Samsung Galaxy S20 (let alone Snapdragon 888 toting handsets like the Galaxy S21), they felt more than powerful enough for most people’s needs.
There’s no reason to think that the same won’t be true of the Snapdragon 775, which makes us optimistic about the state of 2021’s mid-range handsets. Hopefully, we’ll get a release date and some idea of pricing soon.
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