Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1, Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 chipsets announced

Qualcomm has announced the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 and the Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 chipsets, designed for the mid-tier and mass-volume 5G smartphones. The Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 SoC offers up to 35 percent improvement for faster graphics processing and up to 40 percent CPU performance enhancements over the last-gen chipset. On the other hand, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 chipset offers up to 10 percent GPU performance improvements and up to 15 percent CPU improvements over the previous-gen SoC.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 specifications

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 is based on a 4nm fabrication process and includes four cores of Kryo Prime CPU (Cortex-A78) clocked at up to 2.2GHz and four cores of Kryo efficiency CPU (Cortex-A55) clocked at up to 1.8GHz. It also comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X52 5G modem that can deliver up to 2.9 Gbps download speed on the 5G network and supports Sub-6, mmWave, SA, NSA, HSPA, WCDMA, LTE, FDD, TDD, Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) technologies.

The chipset can support a full-HD+ display with a 120Hz refresh rate. For optics, it has a Qualcomm Spectra Triple 12-bit image signal processor that works with up to 200-megapixel single camera and supports multi-frame noise reduction (MFNR), AI-based de-noising engine (AIDE), 720p slo-mo video recording at 240fps, and up to 4K recording at 30fps. For audio, it includes Qualcomm Aqstic audio codec, smart speaker amplifier, and supports Qualcomm aptX audio playback.

Connectivity features supported are Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth v5.2, GPS/ BeiDou/ Galileo/ GLONASS/ NavIC/ GPS/ QZSS, NFC, and USB 3.1 Type-C. Further, the chip supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 4+ technology, up to 12GB 3200mhz LPDDR5 memory, and comes with 7th Gen Qualcomm AI engine and Hexagon Vector eXtensions (HVX) for improved AI performance.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 specifications

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 is based on a 6nm fabrication process and includes two cores of Kryo Prime CPU (Cortex-A78) clocked at up to 2.0GHz and six cores of Kryo efficiency CPU (Cortex-A55) clocked at up to 1.8GHz. It comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X51 5G modem that can deliver up to 800 Mbps download on an LTE network or up to 2.5 Gbps download speed on a 5G connection. It also features Sub-6 GHz, SA, NSA, FDD, TDD, and dynamic spectrum sharing technologies.

The chipset can support up to full-HD+ display with a 120Hz refresh rate. For optics, it has a Qualcomm Spectra Triple 12-bit image signal processor that works with up to 108-megapixel single camera and supports multi-frame noise reduction (MFNR), HEIC photo capture, and 720p slo-mo video capture at 240fps. Video codecs supported are VP9, H.264 (AVC), H.265 (HEVC), and video playback at 1080p resolution at up to 60fps.

For audio, it includes Qualcomm Aqstic audio codec, smart speaker amplifier, and supports Qualcomm aptX audio playback. Connectivity features include Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth v5.2, GPS/ BeiDou/ Galileo/ GLONASS/ NavIC/ GPS/ QZSS, NFC, and USB 3.1 Type-C. Further, the chip supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 4+ technology, up to 2133mhz LPDDR4 memory, and comes with Qualcomm Hexagon Vector eXtensions (HVX) and Qualcomm Hexagon Scalar Accelerator for enhanced performance.

Availability details

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 chipset-powered devices will be available in Q1 2023. Motorola has confirmed that it will use the chip in the upcoming devices. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 devices will roll out in Q3 2022. iQOO has confirmed that it will launch the iQOO Z6 Lite smartphone with Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 chipset, which will launch in India on September 14, 2022.