New era on Android phones: 64 bit becomes standard

Arm, one of the leading names in the mobile chip world, announced its new generation CPU and GPU core designs at the launch event recently. At this point, the Cortex-X4, Cortex-A720 and Cortex-A520 cores included in the announcement can cause a significant change in the mobile market, both in performance and hardware level.

64-bit standard on Android devices

As you know, in the mobile market where competition is accelerating, manufacturers such as Qualcomm and MediaTek are turning to the core designs offered by Arm. We can say that Cortex-X4, Cortex-A720 and Cortex-A520, which only come with 64-bit support, are a warning to manufacturers who depend on 32-bit technology. As a matter of fact, unlike last year, there is no old technology that manufacturers can use.

At this point, Cortex-X4, which will be used in flagship processors, will offer 15 percent higher performance and 40 percent efficiency increase compared to its predecessor X3. According to Arm, this improvement means faster app transitions and a more responsive interface. It will also offer better battery life in high-power gaming scenarios.

Coming to the mid-core Cortex-A720, it comes with an efficiency increase of over 20 percent compared to its predecessor, the A715. In addition, chipmakers will be able to use a smaller “entry” version of the core to reduce costs or downsize their hardware. The next-generation productivity core Cortex-A520, on the other hand, will be 22 percent more efficient and 8 percent more powerful than the A510 it replaces when it comes to background processing and other low-demand tasks.

For those who don’t know, Apple, one of the biggest manufacturers of the mobile market, has shelved 32-bit hardware and application support with iOS 11 introduced in 2017. But the Android ecosystem is moving relatively slower due to midrange and entry-level devices. New core designs from Arm can accelerate the transition to 64-bit. In the announcement, Arm has not yet announced which manufacturers will use the next-generation CPU and GPU core designs.