Qualcomm Snapdragon 690 brings budget 5G Smartphones

Qualcomm just launched SD690 which will give rise to 5G budget smartphones

Qualcomm 6 series is the budget processor lineup of the company. Recently an upgrade to Snapdragon 7665G was launched in the form of 768G and now we have first budget 5G chipset. The Budget Smartphone market is really competitive and 5G was the only big difference between budget and mid-range smartphones. With the Qualcomm Snapdragon 690, that difference ends here.

Budget tech always has some tradeoffs. You are getting 5G support but only for slower sub 6GhZ frequency. Though 5G is the highlight there are several other improvements. The new SD690 provides a 20% faster CPU and 60% faster GPU performance compared to previous generation SD675. There are also improvements on the Camera side and Display.

The SD690 will now support 4k HDR videos and up to 192 MP camera support. The Display refresh rate of 120HZ will be supported as well. Previously these features were limited to mid-tiers like SD765 series and flagships. But now these features are in the budget so it is exciting. But when could you expect the world’s first smartphone with SD690?

The Answer to that question is not clear. Due to COVID 19, the smartphone industry is slower than ever. But, We can expect the first 5G budget Smartphone by the end of this year or at the beginning of 2021. What should be your price expectations? See, Don’t get too excited the device will still cost 200$ or more but it is a good step and by the end of 2021 you can expect 5G to be available in sub 200$ devices.