Qualcomm recently unveiled the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4, their newest high-end smartphone chipset. Internally referred to as the SM8735, it is built on TSMC’s N4P 4nm production node and uses the older Kryo CPU rather than the Oryon core that is present in the top Snapdragon 8 Elite chip.
Three Cortex-A720 cores at 3.0GHz, two at 2.8GHz, two at 2.0GHz, and one Cortex-X4 prime core clocked at up to 3.2GHz make up the CPU layer. Qualcomm claims that the new chip uses 39% less power and is 31% faster than the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 from the previous year.
Additionally, the chip has a new Adreno 825 GPU, which Qualcomm claims will increase graphics by 49% over the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3. Additionally, Snapdragon Elite Gaming capabilities including Snapdragon Game Super Resolution 2.0 and Adreno Image Motion Engine 2.0 are included, along with support for on-device ray tracing.
On-device AI operations are performed 44% better with the upgraded Qualcomm Hexagon NPU. Additionally, Qualcomm included an 18-bit triple image signal processor (ISP) that can record HDR video at 4K60 frames per second and accommodate up to 320MP camera sensors.
The integrated Snapdragon X75 5G modem in the new chip can download files at up to 4.2Gbps, however it only supports sub-6GHz spectrum rather than the speedier mmWave frequency ranges. Additionally, the chip has Bluetooth 6.0 and Wi-Fi 7.
LPDDR5X RAM, USB 3.1 Gen 2 connection, and UFS 4.0 storage are all supported by the 8s Gen 4. Additionally, it has Qualcomm’s Extended Personal Area Network (XPAN) connectivity, which is currently available on certain new wireless earbuds like the Xiaomi Buds 5 Pro and uses Wi-Fi to send music.
Later this month, the iQOO Z10 Turbo is anticipated to be the first gadget to use the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4, with other Xiaomi, Oppo, Meizu, and other products to follow shortly.
Main Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 Features
- Our Qualcomm® AI Engine includes:
- Qualcomm® Hexagon™ NPU
- 2x larger shared memory for improved memory bandwidth
- Qualcomm® Sensing Hub
- Support for INT4 and INT8 precisions
- Qualcomm® Hexagon™ NPU
- Snapdragon Elite Gaming™ Features
- Real-time Hardware Accelerated Ray Tracing with Global Illumination for improved lighting, shadows, and reflections
- Qualcomm Adaptive Performance Engine provides ultra-fast and super-smooth performance while providing longer gameplay sessions
- Snapdragon Game Super Resolution 2.0 intelligently upscales low-res game scenes in up to 4K
- Our Qualcomm Spectra™ AI ISP features:
- Real-time Semantic Segmentation for photo/video with up to 250 layers
- Real-time skin and sky tone correction intelligently captures natural color tones even in challenging environments
- Night Vision 2.0 captures detailed videos in low light at 4K30 FPS
- An always-sensing camera enables features like hand gestures, face unlock, and QR code scanning
- Featuring our integrated AI-accelerated Snapdragon® 5G Modem-RF System
- Qualcomm® FastConnect™ Mobile Connectivity System offers leading Wi-Fi 7 with speeds up to 5.8 Gbps and Bluetooth® 6.0 technology
- Supports Snapdragon Sound™ Technology Suite
- Qualcomm® Expanded Personal Area Network Technology (XPAN) keeps earbuds and headphones connected via Wi-Fi for untethered, whole-building audio coverage
- Snapdragon Seamless experience connects all your compatible devices so you can switch between them intuitively and quickly
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Robert Haba is the founder and editor-in-chief of Droid Tools. A lifelong gadget enthusiast with over a decade following the Android ecosystem, he built this publication to cut through the noise and give readers honest, real-world coverage of the tech they actually use.
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