HiSilicon Kirin 710 vs. Snapdragon 710: which chipset is better?

Posted by Roman Kovalev - 03/19/2020 3722 comments

The most popular processors for Android smartphones are Qualcomm chips, but Huawei inexorably continues to use its own Kirin platforms.

In this review, we want to compare two popular models of mobile processors Snapdragon 710 and Kirin 710. Let's look at the technical features of each platform, compare their characteristics and try to conclude which chipset is more preferable.

Performance

Kirin 710 is a 64-bit octa-core processor that consists of four high-performance ARM Cortex-A73 cores clocked at 2.2 GHz and four high-performance ARM Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.7 GHz.

Qualcomm promises improved task sharing capabilities and reduced latency with the inclusion of eight Kryo 360 cores, which are based on semi-custom ARM Cortex-A75 processors.

Chipsets differ in process technology. The HiSilicon Kirin 710 is built on a 12nm process, while the Snapdragon 710 is built on a 10nm process. This means the 710 Dragon is more energy efficient than its competitor.

You may have noticed new smartphones like the Mi 9 SE with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 712 processor. It's basically the Snapdragon 710, but with a slight boost with Cortex-A75 cores clocked at 2.3 GHz instead of 2.2 GHz.

Snapdragon 710 Specifications and Features

The Snapdragon 710 chipset was announced in May 2020 and debuted the following month in the Xiaomi Mi 8 SE smartphone. It was made using the flagship 10 nm process technology at that time, which indicates its high energy efficiency, and also received a video accelerator of the flagship 600 series. Its main characteristics are:

• processor - 8 cores (2 x Kryo 360 Gold based on Cortex-A75 with a frequency of 2.2 GHz + 6 x Kryo 360 Silver based on Cortex-A55 with a frequency of 1.7 GHz);
• video accelerator - Adreno 616 GPU;
• modem - Snapdragon X15 LTE (800/150 Mbit/s);
• image processing - 2 x ISP Spectra 250 (2 cameras up to 20 MP or 1 camera up to 32 MP);
• picture - Quad HD+, HDR10, 3360 x 1440;
• artificial intelligence - Hexagon 685 DSP.

The main features of the SD710 also include support for Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, USB 3.1 and Quick Charge 4 fast charging.

GPU Performance

If you need a smartphone primarily for gaming, skip the Kirin 710 and buy the Snapdragon 710 instead. The reason? The Kirin 710 uses the old ARM Mali-G51 MP4 GPU, which is 1.3 times faster than the GPU in the Kirin 659, but is a big loser compared to the Adreno 616 GPU in the Snapdragon 710 (check AnTuTu scores for both devices).

Qualcomm's chipset boasts a 35% performance boost over the Adreno 512, and the inclusion of the Vulkan API means it can handle 4K graphics games with ease.

The chip from Huawei includes a new Turbo Tech GPU for lag-free gaming. GPU Turbo technology is designed to improve gaming performance by accelerating GPU hardware and eliminating latency between the GPU and software.

Memory

Both chipsets incorporate the latest advances in RAM and internal storage. Here we find support for LPDDR4X RAM and UFS 2.1 (Universal Flash Storage) for the ROM, which provides better read/write speeds compared to eMMC 5.1 storage.

UFS 2.1 support doesn't really mean any real benefit. Manufacturers will have to step up this momentum and integrate the necessary elements into the smartphone offer.

For example, the Nokia 8.1 has a Snapdragon 710 processor, but it comes with eMMC 5.1 storage, which eliminates the added benefit.

Benchmark results

Which smartphones use Kirin 710

As many people know, Huawei does not share its developments in terms of mobile processors with other companies, so you can only see the Kirin 710 chipset on Huawei and Honor smartphones. Despite this, the list of models running on this processor is really interesting:

• Honor 8X;
• Huawei P30 Lite;
• Honor 10 Lite;
• Huawei P Smart (2019);
• Huawei Mate 20 Lite.

Camera and AI

Qualcomm has dedicated resources to improve the camera performance and AI in the Snapdragon 710. This dragon comes with the new Spectra 250 ISP, which enriches low-light images and supports one 32-megapixel sensor or two 20-megapixel sensors. The Snapdragon 710 is also capable of recording video up to [email protected] while consuming less power.

Huawei doesn't specify camera support for the Kirin 710, but looking at the Nova 3i, we can conclude that the chipset can smoothly record FullHD videos at 60 frames per second.

In terms of AI, the Kirin 710 does not have a dedicated neural processor. Instead, it uses the CPU and GPU for AI-related features such as scene recognition, improved low-light photography, and face unlock.

Qualcomm uses a multi-core AI processor along with NPE (Neural Processing Engine), which provides 2x better performance in AI applications compared to previous generations.

Snapdragon 710 and 845

When the Snapdragon 710 was just announced, some IT publications were quick to report that there weren't that many differences between the 710 and the Snapdragon 845. Supposedly they are even close to each other in terms of performance. That's actually not true: a quick comparison of the specs and benchmark results shows that the 710 is inferior even to last year's flagship Snapdragon 835.

As a result, based on the results of the comparison of 710 and 835, there is no longer any intrigue in the difference between 710 and 845, but for the sake of completeness of this material we will provide a little more information. If the Snapdragon 710 scores 1875 and 5886 points in GeekBench, and the SD 835 scores 2008 and 6575, then the results* of the Snapdragon 845 are much more impressive:

• 3709 points in single-core mode;
• 8815 points in multi-core mode.

S9/S9+ – SD 845, S8/S8+ – SD 835, Nokia 7 Plus – SD 660. Source: Phonearena.com

Xiaomi PocoPhone F1 is the most affordable smartphone with Snapdragon 845:

Of course, the Snapdragon 845 is strikingly superior to the 710 (and 835) in terms of characteristics:

• CPU (cores and frequencies): Snapdragon 845 has eight cores. Four powerful cores operate at a frequency of 2.8 GHz, the other four – 1.8 GHz; The SD 710 has not 4 powerful cores, but only 2, and they operate at a frequency of 2.2 GHz;
• CPU (microarchitecture): SD 845 cores run on the most powerful Qualcomm microarchitecture – Kryo 385, characterized by increased high-speed cache volumes and other improvements;

Comparison of Qualcomm flagships of this and last year

• GPU: Adreno 630 is one third more powerful than Adreno 540 from Snapdragon 835 and, accordingly, more than twice as powerful as Adreno 616 from Snapdragon 710;
• Modem: X20 LTE (up to 1.2 Gb/s) vs. X15 LTE in Snapdragon 710 (up to 800 Mb/s);
• Image processing: Qualcomm Spectra 280 vs Spectra 250 in Snapdragon 710;
• Video recording: Smartphones with Snapdragon 845 can shoot 4K video at 60 FPS, which is not possible with simpler Qualcomm processors.

Conclusion

As a general result, we can say the following: the Snapdragon 710 is definitely significantly weaker and simpler than the current 8xx flagships, despite reports in a number of media that appeared at the time of the announcement of the new processor.

However, on the other hand, the new product is more powerful and much more technologically advanced than all other Qualcomm processors not included in the 8xx line. Therefore, other things being equal, it is better to give preference to a smartphone with a Snapdragon 710 than a gadget based on a Snapdragon 6xx and even more so a Snapdragon 4xx.

* – Numbers taken from the Galaxy S9 test in the GeekBench 4 benchmark by the English-language resource PhoneArena. The Snapdragon 845 in smartphones from other manufacturers may perform slightly differently in GeekBench, but overall the performance will differ only slightly.

• about the author
• Recent publications

Raik

Igor Andreev is the author of articles for ITRew.ru and Our-Firefox.ru. I am passionate about modern technologies, I talk about them in my texts) Follow me — twitter.com

Raik recently posted (see all)

• All differences between Mi 10 and Mi 10T and 10T Pro (+table) - 10/01/2020
• Galaxy S20 FE vs S20, S10 and S10 Lite: which is better? — 09.25.2020
• All the differences between the Xbox Series S and the Xbox One S and X in terms of characteristics. What to choose? — 09/23/2020

Tell others:

• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click here to share content on Facebook. (Opens in a new window)
• Click to print (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)

Charger

The Snapdragon 710 takes full advantage of Qualcomm Quick Charge 4.0 out of the box. The company claims that five minutes of charging is enough for 5 hours of device operation.

Kirin 710 supports Huawei's SuperCharge 2.0 technology. It can drain your battery to 50% in less than half an hour.

Although several companies have launched gadgets with the Snapdragon 710 chip, none of them are equipped with an adapter that supports Quick Charge 4.0. These companies mostly provide a certified Quick Charge 3.0 adapter in retail packaging. You can always buy a certified Quick Charge 4.0 adapter separately and take full advantage of faster charging.