C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 6s Gen 4 smartphone processor.
- It offers a significantly more powerful CPU and GPU than the previous generation, as well as a 4nm design.
- This chip will likely power a variety of inexpensive Android phones.
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 6 series of processors power a variety of inexpensive Android phones, from Motorola and Xiaomi to Samsung and HONOR. Today, the company revealed the Snapdragon 6s Gen 4, which brings some notable improvements.
For starters, Qualcomm claims that this is the first Snapdragon 6-series chip built on a 4nm manufacturing process (Samsung). This is a remarkable deal, as a smaller manufacturing process generally results in a more efficient chipset and improved performance. However, there is no word on specific efficiency gains compared to the 6nm Snapdragon 6s Gen 3.
I don’t want to miss the best of Android Authority?
The Snapdragon 6s Gen 4 uses the same old Cortex-A78 and A55 CPU cores as its predecessor, but with a maximum clock speed increase of 100 MHz. However, look a little closer and you’ll see that the processor layout has undergone a significant change. The new chip now sports a 4+4 layout (four big cores and four small cores) compared to the 2+6 layout of the previous silicon. Add to that the smaller manufacturing process, and it’s no wonder Qualcomm claims the processor’s performance has improved by 36 percent. This is good news for more demanding tasks that require multi-core power, such as video encoding and media editing. This is good news for emulation, as some emulators (e.g. NetherSX2 for PS2) require multiple large CPU cores for demanding games.
The chip designer also says you can expect a 59% better GPU, as well as variable rate shading, Qualcomm Game Quick Touch to reduce touch latency, and support for a 144Hz refresh rate (up from 120Hz). All of this adds up to a pretty substantial upgrade if you want to game on your next budget phone.
Qualcomm also paid attention to camera capabilities, as the Snapdragon 6s Gen 4 supports 200 MP snapshots (instead of 108 MP) and slow-motion capture at 240 fps at 720p (instead of 120 fps/720p). Oddly, the datasheet of the old chip lists support for storage-saving HEVC video capture, while the new chip’s product page ignores this mention. We asked Qualcomm about this apparent omission and will update the article if or when we receive a response.
Other notable upgrades include Bluetooth 5.4, Wi-Fi 6E, a 5G modem reaching downlink speeds of 2.9 Gbps, and support for LPDDR5 RAM. In contrast, the older chip offered Bluetooth 5.2, Wi-Fi 5, 2.5Gbps cellular downlink speeds, and support for the older LPDDR4X RAM standard.
There’s no word on the release schedule for the first Snapdragon 6s Gen 4-powered phones, nor any word on potential device partners. Nevertheless, history suggests that brands like Motorola, Xiaomi and HONOR could be working on phones equipped with this processor.
Thank you for being part of our community. Read our comments policy before posting.
