The newly launched Snapdragon 690 5G SoC holds a lot of potentials. It is a Snapdragon 6 series SoC that has been launched to target the budget smartphone market, which is just a normal thing for the SoC of this family. But what’s not normal is its approach to provide 5G connectivity in 690 that price segment. Means, the Snapdragon 690 5G has the capability to bring 5G to even cheaper smartphones. Before this, the Snapdragon 765G was the one who was doing the same work. But it was a bit expensive in comparison to the Snapdragon 690 5G.
And if you are looking for a 5G smartphone in a budget with best price-to-performance ratio, the Snapdragon 690 5G is an excellent choice as an SoC. And hence, in this post, I am going to list some of the best Snapdragon 690 Phones that you can buy.
Recommended: Snapdragon 690 vs 730G vs 765G – AnTuTu-GeekBench Benchmark Scores
Snapdragon 690 5G Specifications
The specification sheet of the Snapdragon 690 5G includes 8nm LPP fabrication. There are 2x Cortex-A77 performance cores (Kryo 560 Gold Cores) at 2.0GHz and 6x Cortex-A55 (Kryo 560 Silver Cores) at 1.7GHz. The clock speed is definitely not the best in class in its segment, but the Cortex-A77 cores are definitely going to make a difference. This CPU configuration brings 20% improvements over the Snapdragon 675.
For gaming, it has the Adreno 619L GPU, which is 60% better than the Adreno 612 GPU of Snapdragon 675. This GPU gives SD 690 to have support for 4K HDR display and up to 120Hz high refresh rate display. It has been packed with the Hexagon 692 DSP and Spectra 355L ISP which ensures faster and better image and video processing along with remarkable AI performance. The SoC has support for up to 48MP single camera and cans hoot 4k HDR videos at 30fps.
Lastly, in the connectivity section, it has the new Qualcomm X51 5G modem which is a multi-mode 5G modem and sits right below the X52 5G modem, used in the SD 765G. The X51 5G modem promises LTE/4G speeds of up to 1.2Gbps and 210Mbps in D/L and U/L. And for the 5G speeds, the SoC can go up to 2.5Gbps and 1.2Gbps in D/L and U/L respectively. This modem doesn’t come with mmWave 5G but has the Sub-6 5G only.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 690 5G Phones
Here is the list of best Snapdragon 690 Phones that promises 5G connectivity in a budget.
OnePlus Nord Lite
The latest listing of a new and unknown OnePlus device has been seen. The listing reveals that the OnePlus device is using the Adreno 619L GPU. Now, the Snapdragon 690 is the only SoC which has been equipped with this GPU. And hence, it is clearly pointing towards a new OnePlus budget 5G smartphone. Since the OnePlus Nord is going to use the Snapdragon 765G, it is possible that alongside the main OnePlus Nord a Lite and more affordable 5G smartphone is in the pipeline.
Nokia 5G Smartphone
As soon as the Snapdragon 690 was launched, the Chief Product Officer at HMD Globals, Juho Survikas showed his interest in the SoC. You might have already familiar with the Nokia 8.3, which was the company’s first 5G smartphone and was using the Snapdragon 765G. This smartphone was priced at Rs. 47,000, which is quite expensive. But with the Snapdragon 690, there are new possibilities.
Congratulations @cristianoamon and the awesome team at @Qualcomm for the launch of #Snapdragon 690 Mobile Platform! We are excited to bring our Nokia Phones vision of a truly global, future proof 5G experience at an even more affordable price with this transformational platform! pic.twitter.com/yctqfE13sY
— Juho Sarvikas (@sarvikas) June 17, 2020
LG 5G Smartphone
LG has also pointed towards the launch of a new 5G smartphone. However, the company has not specified the smartphone.
Dr In-Kyung Kim, senior vice president of LG, said that,
5G Is Truly Redefining How Consumers Interact With Their Devices. LG Is Supportive Of Bringing This Enabling Technology Down To Lower Priced Products Through Its Integration Of The Snapdragon 690 Mobile Platform,
This statement is making it the fact that LG is looking forward to launching a budget 5G smartphone with the Snapdragon 690 5G SoC.
Motorola 5G Smartphone
Motorola is making a very great comeback. Recently, smartphones like Motorola One Fusion+, Motorola Edge and the Motorola Razr has proved that the company is in some serious future plans. And if such a company gets a platform like SD 690 to build cheaper 5G smartphones, then it will hit a bull’s eye.
And this thing gets clear from the President of Motorola Sergio Buniac’s statement. He said,
We’re Committed To Expand 5G Into Our Portfolio And We Will Rely On The New Snapdragon 690 Mobile Platform To Continue To Do It,
Redmi 5G Smartphone
Xiaomi owned Redmi has a long track record of being the first to bring some exclusivity to its smartphones. So there are chances that Redmi is also keeping an eye on the Snapdragon 690 SoC. This thing can further be catalyzed due to the presence of Realme. There had always been a healthy competition b/w the two companies.
Realme 5G Smartphone
Redmi and Realme are two popular companies that play in the specific price segment. And if either of the company launches the Snapdragon 690 powered smartphone, the other will also do the same for sure. And hence Redmi and Realme both the very likely to have a smartphone with the new Snapdragon 690 5G SoC.
Other 5G OEMs’ smartphones
Apart from the OEMs mentioned above, other companies like TCL and Sharp have also seen interest in the Snapdragon 690 5G SoC and these companies are also looking forward to utilizing this SoC.
The official confirmation/launch of any smartphone with the Snapdragon 690 5G SoC has not been made by the companies. As per the rumour market, the OnePlus Nord Lite is the only smartphone as of now which that exists. However, the official confirmation of this smartphone is still pending.
The list mentioned above of Snapdragon 690 Phones is based on the initial statements from the officials of the OEMs. And these statements are almost confirmations from them that there will be SD 690 smartphones. However, the Realme and Redmi has not stated anything, and these are in this list just because of my expectations. So, take it with a pinch of salt. We will be updating this post as new Snapdragon 690 Phones related things happen.