Summary
major Android chipset .. In spite of the fact that MediaTek has made significant progress with its Dimensity chipset over the last several years, the vast majority of the top Android phones in the world continue to adhere to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 processor.
major Android chipset
So, what can we anticipate from the fourth generation of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8? This is all that we have heard up to this point.
When will the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 be available?
In the eleven months that have passed since the introduction of the Snapdragon 8 in 2021, it seems that Qualcomm has followed a release cycle that spans eleven months. The Gen 1 was released in December 2021; the Gen 2 was released in November of the following year; and the Gen 3 was released in October of this year.
In the event that this trend continues, you would anticipate Qualcomm to make the announcement of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chipset in the month of September; however, the firm has already disclosed that its Snapdragon Summit will take place in the month of October. It is possible that this might still be many weeks ahead of the identical event that took place in 2023, which took place from the 24th to the 26th of the month.
There is less of an influence than you may expect that a difference of a few weeks makes. Historically, it has taken some time for the newly introduced chipset to make its way into smartphones that are widely accessible for purchase after it has been introduced to the public. There will be a delay of one to two months until the first phones powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 are released, with the first pair of these phones appearing before the year 2024 comes to a close.
Which mobile devices will be equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 4?
According to Yogesh Brar, a trustworthy leaker, Xiaomi will be the first company to release a smartphone powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 processor. This phone will be part of the Xiaomi 15 series. This is not unexpected considering that the same thing happened with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 CPU that was used in the Xiaomi 14 devices that were released in 2023.
Following that, the leaker expects that devices from OnePlus and IQOO will follow; however, it is anticipated that they would be produced for the Chinese market. With the Samsung Galaxy S25 anticipated to rapidly embrace the new technology at the beginning of 2025, Samsung is likely to be the first smartphone manufacturer to bring the product to market for consumers in the United States.
The specifications and performance of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 4
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will reportedly feature a 3nm processor that will be manufactured by TSMC, as indicated by early leaks. It has been stated that the forthcoming chip would use a design that is 2 + 6 and will not include any efficiency cores at all. This is in contrast to the 1 + 3 + 4 structure that was seen in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. All of this will be accompanied by a massive increase in clockspeed, which will go from 3.3 percent to 4 percent.
In the real world, does that make sense? An early benchmark that was released implies that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will be a significant contender to Apple’s own A-series CPUs. This is something that has been suggested.
The single-core performance score that it reportedly attained was somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,500. This not only surpasses the numbers that we tested for the iPhone 15 Pro (2,890) and the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra (2,300), but it also matches the measurements that have been leaked for the A18 processor that will be used in the future iPhone 16 Pro (also 3,500). Despite the fact that specific numbers were not provided, it has been rumored that the multi-core score surpasses the presumed 8,200 level for the A18.
In addition, gaming with the anticipated Adreno 830 graphics processing unit ought to be really amazing. The leaker Revegnus indicated in a post on X that has since been removed that it may surpass the graphics capability of the Apple M2 computer chipset by achieving a score of 7,200 in the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme benchmark test. That is something that should be taken with a grain of salt, of course; it is possible that it was removed because it was found to be incorrect.
It is possible that all of these factors will have a knock-on impact not just on efficiency but also on the size of the battery that is needed.
In the beginning of this month, the leaker Digital Chat Station, said that they were aware of three phones that were now in the process of being developed. These handsets used 5,500mAh batteries and had “high-density battery core materials” in order to meet the power requirements of the new chipset. There is a possibility that some are even aiming for 6,000mAh, which might result in mobile devices that are more bulky, albeit nothing nearly as thick as Energizer’s forthcoming 28,000mAh technology.
Lastly, it has been rumored that Qualcomm will gain an advantage over Apple by enabling faster LPDDR6 RAM in Android phones. This might be beneficial for the processing of artificial intelligence on the device itself. On the other hand, it is natural for individual manufacturers to determine whether or not they choose to include that specific memory update into their products.
Anticipations for the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 4
The unadulterated power of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 definitely sounds enticing, particularly in light of the fact that manufacturers are becoming more eager to demonstrate the potential of generative artificial intelligence on devices without having to depend on the cloud.
On the other hand, the potentially higher battery requirements are clearly cause for concern. It is uncertain whether customers would accept chunkier designs and/or worse battery life as a price that is worth paying given that the majority of people are able to use their smartphones at a speed that is sufficient for them, and the ease of on-device artificial intelligence has not yet been proven as a feature that is essential.
A significant portion of this is a rumor at the moment, and a great deal may change between now and October. However, it would not be remarkable if the final chip came with a little lower level of ambition in order to guarantee that mobility and endurance are not compromised against the demands of customers.
