The Qualcomm 215 chip brings dual camera support to budget phones

It’s been several years since Qualcomm introduced the Snapdragon 212 for budget smartphones like the Nokia 2. Smartphones sold at the lowest price brackets currently don’t have a lot to offer, but as smartphone components continue to get cheaper, we’re going to see what were previously mid-range smartphone features make their way to the budget segment. To that end, chip designer Qualcomm has announced the new 215 Mobile Platform. The Qualcomm 215 will bring a 64-bit CPU and dual camera support to budget smartphones in the $75-$120 price range launching later this year.

The new 215 chip will be manufactured on a 28nm process and features four ARM Cortex-A53 64-bit CPU cores clocked at a maximum CPU frequency of 1.3GHz, a Hexagon DSP, and the Adreno 308 GPU. Although Qualcomm wasn’t ready to share performance benchmarks, the company promises up to a 50% increase in CPU performance and a 28% increase in gaming performance compared to the Snapdragon 212. Furthermore, the company is boasting that users can expect up to 5+ days of music playback, 20+ hours of voice calls, and 10+ hours of video playback based on their testing on a reference device with a 3,000mAh battery. As for charging, the 215 supports Qualcomm Quick Charge which is said to be 75% faster than charging with a standard 5V/2A charger, though OEMs must still license the technology for use in their devices.

When it comes to imaging, the 215 Mobile Platform supports up to a single 13MP camera and dual 8MP cameras thanks to its dual 12-bit ISP. That means budget smartphones with the Qualcomm 215 can have a main camera paired with an optical zoom or depth-sensing camera. Videos can be captured at up to FHD (1080p) resolution, though the Qualcomm 215 only supports display resolutions up to HD+ (1560×720), which is still an improvement over the Snapdragon 212.

For connectivity, the Qualcomm 215 supports NFC, the Snapdragon X5 modem for LTE Cat. 4 (150Mbps) download speeds, Wi-Fi 802.11ac for up to 433Mbps download speeds, dual SIM/dual VoLTE, and Enhanced Voice Services (EVS).

Qualcomm 215 Mobile Platform Specifications

Modem

• Snapdragon X5 LTE Modem
• Support for LTE Cat 4
• Downlink: Up to 150 Mbps LTE
• Uplink: Up to 50 Mbps LTE
• Qualcomm® Snapdragon 2×10 MHz carrier aggregation, up to 64-QAM
• Support for LTE Broadcast, Dual SIM Dual VoLTE
• Qualcomm® All Mode LTE FDD, LTE TDD, WCDMA (DC-HSDPA, HSUPA), TD-SCDMA, EV-DO Rev. B, CDMA1x, TD-SCDMA and GSM/EDGE
  • VoLTE with HD Voice and Ultra HD Voice (EVS)
  • Wi-Fi calling with call continuity

Connectivity

• Qualcomm® Wi-Fi Solutions
• Wi-Fi integrated 802.11b/g/n/ac with MU-MIMO
• USB 2.0
• Bluetooth 4.2
• Near Field Communications (NFC): Supported

Camera

• Dual 12-bit Image Signal Processors
• Dual camera: up to 8 MP, ZSL, 30 fps
• Single camera: up to 13 MP, ZSL, 30 fps
• Video capture: up to 1080p at 30 fps

Audio

• High definition audio playback up to 192 kHz/24-bit
• Echo cancellation and noise suppression
• 5.1 surround sound recording

Display

• HD+ 1560×720 (19.5×9)
• External displays supported

CPU & DSP

• 4x ARM Cortex A53
• Up to 1.3 GHz
• 28 nm process technology
• Qualcomm® Hexagon DSP

Visual Subsystem

• Qualcomm® Adreno 308 GPU Visual Processing Subsystem
• OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL, DirectX
• Up to 1080p video playback
• H.264 (AVC), H.265 (HEVC) and VP8 playback

RF Front-End

• Qualcomm® RF Front-End (RFFE) solution

Security

• Qualcomm® Processor Security
• Qualcomm® Content Protection

Memory

• LPDDR3
• Up to 672 MHz, 3 GB RAM
• eMMC 4.5
• SD 3.0 (UHS-I)

Location

• Assisted GPS, OTDOA (LTE-based positioning)
• GPS, GLONASS, Beidou
• Low Power Geofencing and Tracking

Charging

• Quick Charge technology

Part Number

• QM215

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