Qualcomm launches the Snapdragon 780G, mid-range SoC with two high-performance Arm Cortex-A78 cores from the Snapdragon 888

Qualcomm has increasingly come under pressure over the past year from companies like MediaTek encroaching into its higher performance territory. Not wanting to lose its dominant position as the leading supplier of Arm-based SoCs to mobile device OEMs, the company has clearly responded with its new Snapdragon 780G chipset. Think of this as a successor to last year’s Snapdragon 765G which found its way into devices like the Google Pixel 5, LG Velvet and Motorola Edge.

Where the Snapdragon 765G utilized Arm Cortex-A76 cores for its high-performance processing, the Snapdragon 780 ramps this up two generations to the latest Arm Cortex-A78 cores -- the flagship Snapdragon 888 uses also used these very same high-performance cores (along with a slightly more exotic Cortex-X1 core). In total, the Snapdragon 780G uses two Cortex-A78 cores clocked at 2.4 GHz along with six high-efficiency Cortex-A55 cores clocked at 1.8 GHz. 

The “G” designation means that gaming is a focus for the Snapdragon 780G and Qualcomm has baked in an Adreno 642 GPU. This supports Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Elite Gaming features including the ability to update the graphics drivers while it also supports true 10-bit HDR gaming. The SoC also includes the first triple image signal processor (ISP) on a 7-series chip that is capable of shooting three photos simultaneously across zoom, wide and ultra-wide cameras. Throw in a new Hexagon 770 AI processor that delivers twice the performance (12 TOPs) and devices fitted with the new Snapdragon 780G will be well worth a look.

Buy the Snapdragon 765G-powered Google Pixel 5 from Amazon.

Update: It appears Qualcomm's press release went live before it was intended and has since been pulled.