8-core Snapdragon 625, 435 and 4-core Snapdragon 425 announced


With MediaTek gradually taking over what for long had been Qualcomm Snapdragon’s market, the latter is starting to feel the heat. Long gone are the days when tech-savvy consumers wanted Snapdragon SoCs in their phones for various reasons.

Newest releases from Qualcomm are expected to fit into the mid-range smartphone market. The second half of this year, i.e., H2 2016 is when the first commercially available phones running the Snapdragon 425, 435 and 625 are expected to appear.

The octa-core Snapdragon 625 is based on a 14nm manufacturing process, with an integrated X9 LTE modem. The 28nm 435 and the 425 too feature on-board LTE modems, in the X8 LTE and X6 LTE modems respectively.

14nm Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 (MSM8953) SoC

  • 2.0GHz x 8 ARM Cortex A53 cores
  • Support for upto 24 mega-pixel cameras with Dual Image Sensor Processor (ISP)
  • Support for upto to 4K video capture and playback
  • H.264 (AVC), H.265 (HEVC)

Gizchina News of the week


28nm Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 (MSM8940) SoC

  • 1.4GHz x 8 ARM Cortex A53 cores
  • Support for upto 21 mega-pixel cameras with Dual Image Sensor Processor (ISP)
  • Support for upto to 1080p video capture and playback
  • H.264 (AVC), H.265 (HEVC)

28nm Quad-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 (MSM8917) SoC

  • 1.4GHz x 4 ARM Cortex A53 CPUs
  • Support for upto 16 mega-pixel cameras with Dual Image Sensor Processor (ISP)
  • H.264 (AVC), H.265 (HEVC)
  • Support for upto to 1080p video capture and playback

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32 Comments

  1. Frozzem
    February 12, 2016

    Kinda surprised the 625 has 8x A53 at least a few A57 Cores should be midend 2016 :/ and A72 highend

    • Steven Fox
      February 12, 2016

      The A72 cores were meant to reaplce the A57 not compete with them.
      The A72 offers a little more performance(5-10%) with better thermal and power efficiency, so it`s a better core all-round, that`s why most manufacturers are in a hurry to churn ot new SoC with it, not just because it`s a new core.

  2. Steven Fox
    February 12, 2016

    625 is a 14nm part so it will basically be much faster than all the other chips and will properly replace the not-so-favourite SD615/616/617 line.
    The 435 I expect to be a redesigned version of the said above SD615 chip and the 425 a more powerful SD410 replacement.

    • balcobomber25
      February 12, 2016

      The 625 will be a more efficient version of the Helios X10.

    • Karly Johnston
      February 14, 2016

      The dye size doesn’t translate to speed, it represents power efficiency. The A72 in the 652 is 28nm but blows this 14nm A53 out of the water.

      • Steven Fox
        February 14, 2016

        I was refering to the mentioned chips in the article, the SD652 is for another segment.

  3. Assefa Hanson
    February 12, 2016

    too many numbers lol

  4. Frozzem
    February 12, 2016

    Kinda surprised the 625 has 8x A53 at least a few A57 Cores should be midend 2016 :/ and A72 highend

    • Steven Fox
      February 12, 2016

      The A72 cores were meant to reaplce the A57 not compete with them.
      The A72 offers a little more performance(5-10%) with better thermal and power efficiency, so it`s a better core all-round, that`s why most manufacturers are in a hurry to churn ot new SoC with it, not just because it`s a new core.

  5. Steven Fox
    February 12, 2016

    625 is a 14nm part so it will basically be much faster than all the other chips and will properly replace the not-so-favourite SD615/616/617 line.
    The 435 I expect to be a redesigned version of the said above SD615 chip and the 425 a more powerful SD410 replacement.

    • balcobomber25
      February 12, 2016

      The 625 will be a more efficient version of the Helios X10.

    • Karly Johnston
      February 14, 2016

      The dye size doesn’t translate to speed, it represents power efficiency. The A72 in the 652 is 28nm but blows this 14nm A53 out of the water.

    • Steven Fox
      February 14, 2016

      I was refering to the mentioned chips in the article, the SD652 is for another segment.

  6. Muhammad Yasir
    February 12, 2016

    im at a point where the octacore chip offering the BEST CAM and BEST PERFORMANCE for the cheapest possible price will do !

  7. Muhammad Yasir
    February 12, 2016

    how much will the 625 phones cost ?

    i badly wanted a phone with a 652/650 but they are soo rare and too costly :/

    • Aeonia
      February 13, 2016

      the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Pro looks like a good choice..

      • Muhammad Yasir
        February 13, 2016

        its a 650 , and resellers have it at a bit of a steep rate
        so i was hoping maybe i could sneak away with a poor man’s bargain with a decent 625 phone ?

  8. Assefa Hanson
    February 12, 2016

    too many numbers lol

  9. Guaire
    February 12, 2016

    The SD425 and 435 flat out boring IMO.

    The SD625 is only interesting stuff there. Though it’s similar to Helio X10, that one gonna have sustainable multicore performance.

    Assuming it will be ready at Q1 2017 at best, it won’t be that impressive. A53 will be kinda outdated, furthermore 14nm FinFET still will be expensive for a mere octacore A53, I guess.

    A35 and 22nm FD-SOI pair would have better choice for budget phones IMO, hence A35 is 25% more efficient and smaller than A53, also 22nm FD-SOI 70% more efficient than 28nm at same cost.

  10. Guest
    February 12, 2016

    im at a point where the octacore chip offering the BEST CAM and BEST PERFORMANCE for the cheapest possible price will do !

  11. Guest
    February 12, 2016

    how much will the 625 phones cost ?

    i badly wanted a phone with a 652/650 but they are soo rare and too costly :/

    • Boni M.
      February 13, 2016

      the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Pro looks like a good choice..

    • Guest
      February 13, 2016

      its a 650 , and resellers have it at a bit of a steep rate
      so i was hoping maybe i could sneak away with a poor man’s bargain with a decent 625 phone ?

    • Boni M.
      February 13, 2016

      I can’t seem to find it in stock in any resellers…Care to share some links?

    • Guest
      February 13, 2016

      for redmi note 3 pro ?

    • Guest
      February 13, 2016

      well , since im from PAkistan , most of my compatriots use ALiexpress but i bet you can find a bunch of resellers from Kimovil

      for 3 GB variant
      http://www.kimovil.com/en/where-to-buy-xiaomi-redmi-note-3-pro

      for 2gb version

      http://www.kimovil.com/en/where-to-buy-xiaomi-redmi-note-3-pro-2gb-16gb

  12. Guaire
    February 12, 2016

    The SD425 and 435 flat out boring IMO.

    The SD625 is only interesting stuff there. Though it’s similar to Helio X10, that one gonna have sustainable multicore performance.

    Assuming it will be ready at Q1 2017 at best, it won’t be that impressive. A53 will be kinda outdated, furthermore 14nm FinFET still will be expensive for a mere octacore A53, I guess.

    A35 and 22nm FD-SOI pair would have better choice for budget phones IMO, hence A35 is 25% more efficient and smaller than A53, also 22nm FD-SOI 70% more efficient than 28nm at same cost.

  13. Jim Shortz
    February 15, 2016

    Its good to see all these chips with H.265 support.

  14. Jim Shortz
    February 15, 2016

    Its good to see all these chips with H.265 support.