Mere weeks after launching its flagship 5G hardware for 2021, Qualcomm has turned its attention to a new platform for cheaper 5G phones.

We'll see phones featuring the new Snapdragon 480 appear in the coming weeks, notably from Nokia, OnePlus, Oppo and Vivo, all long-term Qualcomm users. These presumably would have been launching in the February/March slot which would have been occupied by Mobile World Congress. Instead, that event has been delayed until June. 

Crucially for a relatively low-end chipset there is 5G support. Most flagship and many mid-range phones boast 5G support already and 2021 devices will see many accessible handsets get 5G support. Other technologies supported on this platform are aptX audio for streaming audio over Bluetooth, 120fps FHD+ screen support and QuickCharge 4+ which is a couple of years old but should mean you can get a 50 percent charge after just 15 minutes attached to a compatible charger. It's Wi-Fi 6-ready. 

The Snapdragon 480 is based on an 8nm manufacturing process so will still be pretty power-efficient, with the 2GHz CPU cores offering almost double the performance of the previous generation, Snapdragon 460. The same uplift in performance goes for the graphics processor, while there's also a 70 percent boost to AI performance too.