If you thought bezel-less displays and powerful performance were limited to flagships, think again. Thanks to Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 636 chipset, mid-range phones could be getting a significant processing boost in the very near future.
A successor to Qualcomm's current Snapdragon 630 mid-range chipset, the 636 will make it easier for phone makers to bring FHD+ support (that's the name for the 2160x1080 resolution found in many 2:1 displays) to less expensive phones, allowing them to achieve similar dimensions to flagships like the LG G6 and Huawei Mate 10 Pro.
On top of this, the chip will offer Assertive Display technology, which uses Qualcomm's TruPalette and EcoPix features to optimise screen visibility in all kinds of lighting conditions.
Oh, snap!
According to Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 636 will also improve on the 630 by providing devices with a 40% increase in processing power, thanks to the inclusion of its Kryo 260 CPU.
On top of this, an integrated Adreno 509 GPU will provide a 10% boost in gaming and graphical performance of mid-range handsets.
We won't have to wait long, either – Qualcomm plans to start shipping the Snapdragon 636 mobile platform to phone manufacturers as early as November, 2017. As for which manufacturers will take advantage of the new and affordable chipset, that remains to be seen, though you can expect mid-range phones in general to step their game up in a big way in 2018.
