Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon chips bring a much needed performance boost to affordable phones
Qualcomm has unveiled two new mid-range mobile chips—Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 and Snapdragon 6 Gen 1—that bring a much-needed performance boost to affordable smartphones. Both new chipsets get faster CPUs, more powerful GPUs, and faster wireless connectivity, and they could be used in future Galaxy phones.
Snapdragon 4 Gen 1
The Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 is a 6nm chipset manufactured by TSMC. It has two Cortex-A78 CPU 2.0GHz cores, a jump from Snapdragon 480’s Cortex-A76 cores. The other six CPU cores are Cortex A55 clocked at 1.8GHz. The company claims a CPU performance improvement of 15%, while the Adreno GPU offers a 10% more powerful GPU. It can drive Full HD+ displays at 120Hz and features VRS (Variable Rate Shading).
The chipset is still limited to LPDDR4X RAM, clocked at 2,133MHz. The triple-12-bit Spectra ISP can simultaneously process data from three cameras (13MP+13MP+13MP) with zero shutter lag. It is compatible with up to 108MP camera sensors. Its video recording chops haven’t been updated, though, and it’s still limited to 1080p 60fps. The new ISP can do multi-frame noise reduction.
Regarding connectivity, the Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 has a 5G radio compatible with sub-6GHz networks. It features dual-frequency GPS, Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, and USB 3.1 Type-C. It is compatible with Quick Charge 4+. Expect phones to ship with the Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 starting this month.
Snapdragon 6 Gen 1
The Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 gets more prominent performance improvements. It is made using a 4nm process, but Qualcomm hasn’t revealed whether it’s made by Samsung Foundry or TSMC. It has four Cortex-A78 CPU cores clocked at 2.2GHz and four Cortex-A55 CPU cores clocked at 1.8GHz, offering a 40% performance jump.
The Adreno GPU is claimed to be 35% faster than the Snapdragon 695. It features HDR gaming and 10-bit color depth. The chipset is compatible with dual-channel 16-bit LPDDR5 RAM (2,750MHz) and UFS storage. The triple-12-bit Spectra ISP can process images from three cameras with zero shutter lag. It can also record 4K HDR 30fps videos.
Connectivity features of the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 include mmWave + sub-6GHz 5G radio, dual-frequency GPS, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, and USB 3.1 Type-C. Phones with this chipset will be released sometime in Q1 2023.
