CPU in machines is responsible for making all the logical calculations that drive the equipment. While CPUs were initially meant for PCs and then gaming consoles, they now also sit at the heart of the most common consumer electronics — smartphones, which feature a relatively smaller sized compared to the ones on a laptop.
Chipset manufacturers had to make several changes to the CPU design to accommodate more power in a smaller form factor. Computers have plenty of space for all the different components required for its functioning. For a mobile device, all these components are placed on a single piece of silicon. Due to this reason, these chipsets are known as SOCs’ (system on chip).
Knowing about a device’s SOC is the most important thing. It is responsible for CPU operations and also includes the GPU, memory controller, display, camera support, and in some cases, an AI core.
There are a lot of parameters based on which SOCs’ are compared. In this article, we will go over each one of them to help you make an educated decision on which is the better choice for you.
Also read: Snapdragon 712 vs 710 vs 675
Manufacturing technology
All the computation on a CPU is done by small switching units known as transistors. These transistors draw power for changing their state. The manufacturing technology tells us about the size of the transistors. A smaller transistor size draws lesser power.
The Snapdragon 710 has a 10nm lithography, whereas the Kirin 659 comes with a 16nm lithography.
Thus, the Snapdragon consumes a lot less power than the Kirin and can provide relatively better battery life.
Cores and clock speed
These parameters are used to get an idea of the processing power of the CPU. A higher clock frequency enables a CPU to perform more instructions at the same time. More cores provide higher computation ability and better multitasking.
The Kirin 659 has a total of eight cores. Four of them clocked at 2.3GHz and the other at 1.7GHz. Such a configuration helps to save power. The device uses its faster cores when a processing-intensive job is to be done.
The Snapdragon 710, on the other hand, has two clusters. One has six cores clocked at 2.2Ghz while the other cores are clocked at 1.7Ghz.
Even though the Snapdragon has a slightly lower clock frequency it has more cores which provide better performance compared to the kirin 659
GPU
The GPU of a device responsible for video processing — better GPU means a heightened overall gaming experience.
The Snapdragon 710 comes with an Adreno 616, whereas the Kirin 658 comes with an ARM Mali-T830 MP2. The Adreno outperforms the Mali GPU by a mile. The main reason for this is that the Adreno comes with state of the art Vulkan video processing and has a higher clock frequency.
Also read: Kirin 710 vs Snapdragon 660
Memory controller
The Kirin 659 comes with Lpddr3x RAM support, whereas the Snapdragon has Lpddr4x RAM support. The Lpddr4x provides faster memory access and makes the Snapdragon faster.
The Snapdragon 710 comes with an AI core. It helps to optimise battery usage over time. It also provides faster facial recognition and voice recognition. Kirin does not have an AI core to perform all these tasks.
Camera and display
The Snapdragon 710 supports a QHD+ display (3360×1440 pixels). The 710 comes with Dual 16MP + 16MP cameras and a single 25MP, 48MP, or 192MP. These cameras use Multi-Frame Noise Reduction to give better picture quality.
The Kirin 659 can only handle an FHD display(1920 x 1080 pixels). For photography, it offers 16 megapixels, supporting the 8 MP + 8 MP lens.
Benchmark
The Geekbench benchmark of Kirin 659 is 192 (Single-Core Score) and 875 (multi-core) in Huawei Mate 10 Lite. While the benchmark score of Snapdragon 710 is 396 (single-core) and 1415 (multi-core) in Nokia 8.1.
The Snapdragon outperforms the Kirin SOC in almost all the parameters and is a clear winner.
| Category | Snapdragon 710 | Kirin 659 |
|---|---|---|
| Node | 10 nm | 16 nm |
| CPU | Qualcomm Kryo 360 CPU, Octa-core CPU with up to 2.3 Ghz speed | ARM Cortex-A53, Octa-Core CPU with upto 2.3 Ghz speed |
| GPU | Qualcomm Adreno 616 GPU | ARM Mali-T830 MP2 |
| Display | Up to Quad HD+ HDR: HDR10 Display Pixels: 3360×1440 External Display: Up to4K Ultra HD | FHD display(1920 x 1080 pixels) |
| Bluetooth | Bluetooth 5.0 | Bluetooth 5.0 |
| Camera | Spectra 250 ISP 32MP single / 20MP dual | 16 megapixels, supporting the 8 MP + 8 MP lens. |
| Benchmark (Geekbench) | 396 (single-core) and 1415 (multi-core) in Nokia 8.1 | 92 (Single-Core Score) and 875 (multi-core) in Huawei Mate 10 Lite |
Also read: Exynos 7904 vs Snapdragon 636
