Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 Release Date, Specs: New Chip to Provide Improved Features on Mid-Tier Mobile Devices

By Jessica Ferrera, Christian Post Contributor Thursday, October 19, 2017

People could be getting much more improved mid-tier smartphones in the near future, thanks to Qualcomm's release of the new Snapdragon 636 chip.

This week, Qualcomm announced the expansion of their Snapdragon 630 mobile platform with the introduction of the Snapdragon 636. In a statement, the company promised that the new chip would permit "significant increases" in a mid-range handset's "performance, gaming and display technology."

The Snapdragon 636 is built with the octa-core Kryo 260 CPU that - as Qualcomm claims - can deliver a better performance of up to 40 percent compared to its predecessor, the Snapdragon 630. With this improvement, the new mobile chip is expected to showcase up to 1.8 gigahertz of base clock speed.

It is also packed with Qualcomm's Adreno 509 graphics card. This is probably one of the most significant improvements in the Snapdragon 636 since it will "boost gaming and browsing performance by 10 percent as compared to the previous generation."

The company claimed that the Snapdragon 636 will let users of future mid-tier mobile devices experience "an unprecedented gaming experience with lifelike visuals and efficient rendering of advanced 3D graphics."

In the smartphone market, products with wider screens that support Full High-Definition resolution have recently been the trend. However, with the limitations of previously available chips, mid-range devices normally were not able to provide this feature.

Even so, Qualcomm is closing that gap with the release of the Snapdragon 636 because the company designed the new chip to support "modern ultra-wide FHD+ displays and Assertive Display." This will also allow manufacturers to create mid-range smartphones that can playback and capture 4K videos.

The Snapdragon 636 is also built to support some of the most advanced technologies for mobile cameras. The new chip can handle up to 24-megapixel sensors as well as promising camera features such as an optical zoom, 2x Image Sensor Processor, Zero Shutter Lag, Hybrid Autofocus, and more.

In the same announcement, Qualcomm confirmed that they were gearing up to ship Snapdragon 636 chips to their partners by November. This means that Snapdragon 636-powered devices will be in the market sometime next year.