Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 is official

With the Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 SoC, Qualcomm brings features like a 108MP camera and 120Hz display to  mid-range devices.

 4nm chip with 120Hz display support.

Qualcomm has announced its latest entry-level smartphone processor, the Snapdragon 4 Gen 2. Manufactured using a 4nm process, the chip is considered one of the most power efficient in its segment and also features several AI-related technologies such as enhanced background noise cancellation. , improved low-light camera performance, and improved connectivity for gaming and streaming.

The Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 is manufactured by Samsung using the 4nm process and features an octa-core CPU configuration with two high-performance 2.2GHz cores  based on the Arm Cortex-A77 architecture and 6 efficient cores based on the Arm Cortex-A55 architecture. . It also gets a new Adreno GPU which is better than  the Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 chip.

Other highlights of the Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 SoC include the new Snapdragon X61 5G  RF supporting download speeds of up to 2.5 Gbps, global 5G sub-6GHz multi-SIM support  and 4x4 MIMO support for advanced opportunities. wireless network function.

The chip supports up to UFS 3.1 memory, LPDDR5x  RAM and is  compatible with Qualcomm Quick Charge 4+ technology. Additionally, the  Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 GPU can drive the display with a refresh rate of up to 120Hz  and  can also support cameras up to 108MP and video recording up to 1080p at 60fps.

Qualcomm  confirmed that Redmi and Vivo are the first  brands to launch devices featuring the Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 SoC, and likewise during the presentation, the brand confirmed that the price of a 5G phone featuring the new Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 SoC will be  around Rs 15,000 in India. confirmed that it will.

Update:

And speaking of AI, as we found out after Qualcomm posted the  product page, Qualcomm has also removed the venerable Hexagon DSP from this chip. Different sets of  acceleration blocks (i.e., SIMD banks) are commonly used for efficient processing of  computer vision, artificial intelligence, audio, sensor fusion, and other tasks. Depending on the workload, this will either provide high raw throughput or, if energy efficiency is required, the chosen class of work will be processed much more efficiently than  the CPU.

Hexagon has been the centerpiece of Snapdragon SoCs since the  first part  15 years ago, and  the extent to which Qualcomm promotes them varies from generation to generation, but it has always been there until now. However, by focusing on lowering the cost (and die size) of the Snapdragon 4 SoC, Qualcomm has eliminated the DSP block and offloaded the work to the CPU and  GPU. Ultimately, this doesn't affect the functionality provided by the chip itself (software can always run on the CPU if the GPU isn't running), but it does mean that Qualcomm is using a smaller collection of less specialized  data processing hardware. It was in the previous installment. — This means that there is a potential loss of efficiency  in the process.

The latest major hardware change to the SoC is an upgrade to a Snapdragon X60 class modem. New to Qualcomm's product line is the Snapdragon X61 modem, a smaller version of the X62/X65 modem used in other chips. Compared to previous SoC 4 Gen 1  and  X51 modems, the X61 supports the latest release 16  (aka 5G Phase 2) of the 3GPP standard suite.

Release 16 is now three years old, so it's the update we need to keep up with the evolution of 5G networks. The major benefit of Release 16 is closer to network operations  than consumers, so phone buyers  often don't see anything except some improvements in coverage. For the 4th Gen 2, the actual processing speed has not changed from the 4th Gen 1. That means download and upload speeds reach 2.5 Gbps and 900 Mbps respectively.

This time, mmWave support is also outside Qualcomm's specifications. In Gen 4 1, this turns out to be some kind of unspecified feature. The hardware was there in case phone manufacturers wanted to use it, but Qualcomm didn't advertise it. It's unclear if Qualcomm  bothered with the hardware. This new silicone.

Also  note: Bluetooth 5.2 support has disappeared from Qualcomm's specification. The 4 Gen 1 did support BT 5.2, but Qualcomm's 4 Gen 2 documentation says it supports only  BT 5.1. Not only is this a step back, but it's notable  because Bluetooth low energy audio is a 5.2 feature  and arguably the defining feature of 5.2. At this point, it's unclear why Qualcomm would want to remove this feature from a budget SoC.

The Wi-Fi portion of Qualcomm's wireless system has also been downgraded from previous systems. 4 Gen 2 only supports one antenna (1x1) whereas previous parts in Snapdragon 4 were 2x2. Although new silicon, the highest  Wi-Fi standard supported is still Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac), so the SoC hasn't improved  what a single antenna can do. Suffice it to say that Qualcomm is betting far more  on cellular  than Wi-Fi for  emerging and low-cost markets where Snapdragon 4 devices are prevalent.