Qualcomm did confuse a lot of users when they came up with the Snapdragon 720G mobile platform recently after the already-available Snapdragon 730G had a lot of similarities. And with some of the phones with the “Pro” moniker opting to come with this new Snapdragon 720G rather than the powerful Helio G90T or better ones, there surely should be some reason behind it. Let’s see how the Snapdragon 720G differs from the 730G in terms of clock speeds, compatibility, and even the GPU performance.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G has the Qualcomm Kryo 465 octa-core CPU, while the Snapdragon 730G comes with the Qualcomm Kryo 470 CPU, and both differ with the clock speeds where the max. clock speed offered on the Kryo 465 is higher, at 2.3GHz when compared to the 2.2GHz on the Kryo 470. This means the regular performance of the CPU is going to be a little better on the Snapdragon 720G.
The manufacturing process technology is the same on both, the 8nm process, and it is the 64-bit architecture, so no difference there as well.
With the GPU, it is said that the Snapdragon 730G takes the lead with the 15% higher clock speeds on the Adreno 618 GPU, and while it is the same GPU used here on the Snapdragon 720G, the lesser clock speed might make it a bit compromised when you try to play the high-end games that are graphic intensive. But at the same time, so far, we have seen both the chipsets to be getting a similar GPU score on benchmark tests. Interestingly, the support for HDR10 gaming, 4K HDR10 PQ and HLG Video Playback, H.264 (AVC), H.265 (HEVC) VP8 and VP9 playback is present on both the chipsets.
It seems like the Snapdragon 720G is built on the Snapdragon 730 regular and thus the GPU is clocking at the same speed, while the chipset maker has made sure that the CPU is made faster. The select Snapdragon Elite Gaming features are the same on both the processors.
With the support for cameras, the ISP is a little different. The Snapdragon 730G comes with the Qualcomm Spectra 350 Image Signal Processor while it is the Spectra 350L ISP on the Snapdragon 720G processor. How do these differ? It is with the support for the cameras. Here’s how they differ.
- Snapdragon 730G: Dual camera: up to 22 MP, with Zero Shutter Lag and Multi-Frame Noise Reduction
- Snapdragon 720G: Dual camera: up to 16MP, with Zero Shutter Lag and Multi-Frame Noise Reduction
- Snapdragon 730: Single camera: up to 36 MP, with Zero Shutter Lag and Multi-Frame Noise Reduction
- Snapdragon 720G: Single camera: up to 32 MP, with Zero Shutter Lag and Multi-Frame Noise Reduction
- Snapdragon 730G: Single camera: up to 48 MP, with Multi-Frame Noise Reduction
- Snapdragon 720: Single camera: up to 48 MP, with Multi-Frame Noise Reduction
With the Snapdragon 730G, it seems like alongside the 4K 30fps capture, there is also support for 10-bit
Rec. 2020 color gamut for HDR10 video and this wasn’t mentioned as something supported on the other chipset.
Of course, there are several similarities as well and those can be seen on the connectivity part, and with the DSP being a little different, it won’t really matter in the final performance. But, there sure are several differences as mentioned above, and while the Snapdragon 720G is a well-performing chipset, it might not be the same when the GPU’s role comes into play.
But then, if you are to choose between two smartphones, one getting its power from either of the chipsets, you should not be emphasizing a lot on the chipsets here.
