In the electronics world, artificial intelligence has become a “do or die” proposition. All chipset makers have their own solutions and Qualcomm just kicked off the price race – AI isn’t just for flagships anymore.

The company announced a new Snapdragon 700 line of chipsets that will bring the advanced AI capabilities of the 800 series into a more affordable package. We don't know the exact specs yet, but the new chip will use Kryo CPU cores and an Adreno GPU (plus Spectra ISP and the Hexagon vector processor).

The 700 chips will be twice as fast in AI tasks compared to a Snapdragon 660. This includes tasks ranging from machine vision to speech recognition. Camera enhancements seem to be a particular focus: “Expect a multitude of additional professional grade camera features,” says Qualcomm.

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The new Snapdragon will do great on Internet of Things tasks as well, thanks to its advanced connectivity – from LTE, through Wi-Fi to Bluetooth 5, the chip covers the range of connectivity from fast to low-power.

It’s suitable for battery-powered tasks as well, Qualcomm promises up to 30% improvements in power efficiency compared to the 660 chip. And it has Quick Charge 4.0+ tech, charging a 2,750mAh battery form flat to 50% full in 15 minutes.

We expect to see the Snapdragon 700 chipset in premium mid-range phones, but other smart devices as well - anything really that combines AI, screen and camera (an Amazon Echo Show comes to mind, currently powered by an Atom x5-Z8350).