- The Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 processor is fabricated on TSMC's 4nm process, providing improved performance and efficiency.
- It features a 29% better GPU, and upscaling 1080p games to 4K.
- The Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 includes new INT4 support to run optimized LLM models in limited RAM.
Apart from a few rumors here and there, the Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 showed up like a surprise today. Qualcomm has been focusing a lot more on their 7 and 8 series CPUs which is why the 6 Gen has felt a bit of a letdown in the past few generations. But this time, Qualcomm gave some much-needed improvements to the new Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 promising a better smartphone experience overall.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 4: Specifications
The biggest upgrade in my opinion is the fact that the Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 is the first one in the series fabricated on TSMC’s 4nm process and uses the new ARMv9 cores. As per its product brief, the core cluster includes a prime core clocked at 2.3GHz. Followed by three other Cortex A720s clocked at 2.2GHz. As for efficiency cores, there’s a cluster of four Cortex A520 cores clocked at 1.8GHz.
Qualcomm hasn’t offered much detail on the GPU front, but we know it is 29% better GPU than the one used in the Snapdragon 6 Gen 3. It also features Snapdragon Game Super Resolution which upscales 1080p games to 4k. This marks another first for a 6-series processor. Plus, Adreno frame motion generation should further improve the overall gaming experience with this CPU.
It has on-device AI, and INT4 support. So, this means, it can fit more optimized LLM models in the limited RAM configuration. Talking about memory, it supports 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM at 3200MHz, and UFS 3.1 for storage. The display resolution extends to 1080p+ at 144Hz refresh rate, 10-bit colors, HDR 10+, and 4K 60FPS playback.
Moreover, the Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 has triple 12-bit ISPs which support up to 200MP sensors. This is similar to what we saw on the last gen, but the single camera support is bumped to 64MP. It offers 4K video recording capped at 30FPS. There is hardware acceleration for H.265 and VP9 playback, but AV1 is missing.
Connectivity is mostly identical to the Snapdragon 6 Gen 3. There’s a 5G modem with mmWave and sub-6GHz support offering a download speed of 2.9Gbps. It offers Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax) and Bluetooth 5.4 LE support. The latter is an upgrade from the previous iteration. Here’s a quick breakdown of all the highlights of Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 compared to the 6 Gen 3.
Specs Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 Fabrication Process 4nm 4nm CPU 1x Cortex-A720 @ 2.3GHz
3x Cortex-A720 @ 2.2GHz
4x Cortex-A520 @ 1.8GHz4x Cortex-A78 @ 2.4Ghz
4x Cortex-A55 @ 1.8GhzGPU Adreno GPU with 29% jump over 6 Gen 3 Adreno 710 RAM Up to 3200 MHz LPDDR5 Up to 3200 MHz LPDDR5 Display Full HD+ at 144 Hz Full HD+ at 120 Hz ISP 12-bit 12-bit Camera 200 MP, 64 MP Zero Shutter Lag 200 MP, 48 MP Zero Shutter Lag Video 4K @ 30 fps 4K @ 30 fps Connectivity Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.4 LE Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2 Charging QuickCharge 4+ QuickCharge 4+
Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 4: Availability and Pricing
As the name implies, this processor is going to be featured in budget to midrange devices, with brands like Oppo, Realme and Honor being the first one to use the Snapdragon 6 Gen 4. We don’t have a word on when the devices with this CPU will come out, but we should be hearing some details in the coming months.
India could be the first region to receive phones powered by the 6 Gen 4, and given it is such a price sensitive market, phone makers are likely to target a $100 to $150 price range.
