Qualcomm has built a reputation for releasing high quality chipsets for mobile devices. The company’s Snapdragon 835 is expected to power some of this year’s best phones including the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Google Pixel 2. However, the chip maker does cater to the middle-to-lower end market as well, with chipsets such as the Snapdragon 625 or Snapdragon 430.
But Qualcomm wants to expand its reach even more. It’s newest SoC is targeted at the most affordable handset market – specifically at feature phones. You know, devices like the new Nokia 3310.
With the advent of smartphones, feature phones have been losing their appeal. However, new arrivals like the Nokia 3310 have shown that people wouldn’t say no to a sleek feature phone. Although the Nokia 3310 does have an advantage over other models – it appeals to customers’ nostalgia.
Anyway, going back to Qualcomm’s new SoC – it’s called Qualcomm 205 Mobile Platform and will be bringing 4G LTE capabilities to feature phones for the first time.
In addition to 4G, the new Qualcomm 205 Mobile Platform also adds LTE data services such as Voice over LTE (VoLTE) and Voice over Wi-Fi (VoWi-Fi), advanced power consumption and up to 150Mbps download speeds.
The Qualcomm 205 Mobile Platform is actually a dual-core processor clocked at 1.1GHz with Adreno 304 GPU which should prove more than enough to sustain all the activities onboard a feature phone. The SoC is designed to support a Linux based OS, up to 3MP rear and selfie camera, 720p video streaming at 30fps and eMMC 4.5 flash storage an LPDDR2/LPDDR3 RAM.
There’s also dual-SIM connectivity, support for location services and Qualcomm’s hardware-based SecureMSM security platform. Last but not least, it’s expected the processor will be able to deliver an advanced battery life that could allow for 20+ hours of voice calling.
Qualcomm is expected to partner up with device manufacturers which are targeting emerging markets such as India, where the love for feature phones is still big. Phones with the new platform are expected to become available in Q3 from companies like Micromax, TCL, HiPad or CKT.
