(Image source from: Indiatoday.in)
On Wednesday, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 was officially unveiled, marking Qualcomm's advancement from last year's Snapdragon 8s Gen 3, with significant upgrades in CPU, GPU, and artificial intelligence capabilities. This new chip, distinct from the Snapdragon 8 Elite, is produced with TSMC’s 4nm process technology. It is anticipated to be featured in smartphones geared towards gamers and includes hardware-accelerated ray tracing capabilities. Additionally, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 facilitates on-device multimodal and multilingual generative AI. Enhanced connectivity is provided through Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.0. iQOO has announced that the forthcoming iQOO Z10 Turbo will incorporate this latest Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 chip, with more devices from Meizu, Oppo, and Xiaomi expected to utilize it in the near future.
The Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 is aimed at affording gaming smartphones that are more budget-friendly compared to the premium models housing Qualcomm’s elite Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC. Unlike the Snapdragon 8 Elite, which utilizes TSMC's advanced 3nm manufacturing process, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 is crafted based on the 4nm architecture. This new chipset features Arm reference cores instead of Qualcomm’s bespoke Oryon cores, comprising one Cortex-X4 core at 3.2GHz, three Cortex-A720 cores at 3.0GHz, two Cortex-A720 cores at 2.8GHz, and two Cortex-A720 cores at 2.0GHz. It can also handle up to 24GB of LPDDR5x RAM and UFS 4.0 storage. Qualcomm asserts that the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 achieves a remarkable 31 percent enhancement in CPU performance relative to its predecessor, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3, and introduces a new Adreno 825 GPU. This GPU claims to provide a 49 percent improvement in graphics performance, along with support for on-device ray tracing.
The update includes a revamped Hexagon NPU, boasting a performance increase of up to 44 percent for on-device AI applications, as reported by Qualcomm. Similar to its predecessor, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 carries an 18-bit triple Spectra image signal processor, accommodating up to three 36-megapixel cameras or a single 320-megapixel camera. Smartphones leveraging the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 can feature displays with a resolution up to WQHD+ (3,840x1,600 pixels) and a variable refresh rate that spans from 1Hz to 240Hz. Connectivity features of the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 encompass 5G (Sub-6, excluding mmWave), 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0, GPS, Glonass, BeiDou, Galileo, QZSS, and NavIC, alongside USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C capabilities. It is also compatible with Quick Charge 5, which debuted in 2020, facilitating charging speeds of 100W or higher.
