Today Qualcomm announced their new 215 Mobile Platform which is targeted at powering “mass market” devices, which really means that the platform caters to entry-level (AKA budget) smartphone buyers. The 215 Mobile Platform is the company’s newest addition to their 2-series.
While the new Qualcomm 215 Mobile Platform is clearly targeted to the budget-conscious market, and we suspect that that means it will be targeted at emerging markets like India, Africa, and South America. That said, the 215 Mobile Platform has plenty to offer. To that effect, it offers a 64-bit CPU and dual-ISPs.
Specifically, it offers four ARM Cortex-A53 cores which translates to a 50% increased CPU performance compared to the previous generation. This is also the first time a 64-bit CPU is showing up in the company’s 2-series.
The 215 Mobile platform also features the Qualcomm Hexagon DSP which is engineered to support up to 5+ days of music playback, while its Qualcomm Adreno 308 GPU supports up to 10 days of video playback. Other features include support for Qualcomm QuickCharge. When it comes to gaming performance, Qualcomm says that the 215 offers a 28% boost in gaming performance over the previous generation.
Some other firsts for the 215 Mobile Platform includes support for up to 13MP photo capture, support for Full HD (1080p) video capture, support for HD+ resolution display, a Hexagon DSP for audio and sensor processing, support for Dual SIM with Dual VoLTE, EVS voice calls, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, and support for NFC Payments on Android. While none of these features are anything to write home about, they will help make entry-level smartphones do everything they need to do well.