Qualcomm Unveils Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 — A Processor for Budget Flagships or Expensive Mid-Range

Qualcomm has unveiled its latest mobile SoC, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4. The chip, internally designated SM8735, is manufactured using TSMC’s 4nm N4P process and uses older Kryo cores instead of the latest Oryon cores found in the flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite. The new product is aimed at upper-mid-range smartphones.

Image source: GSMArena.com

The processor has one Cortex-X4 core with a clock speed of up to 3.2 GHz, three Cortex-A720 cores with a clock speed of 3.0 GHz, two Cortex-A720 cores with a clock speed of 2.8 GHz, and two Cortex-A720 cores with a clock speed of 2.0 GHz. According to Qualcomm, the new processor is 31% faster than last year’s Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 and consumes 39% less energy.

Graphics are handled by the Adreno 825 GPU, which the manufacturer claims “delivers 49 percent faster graphics performance than Snapdragon 8s Gen 3.” The Adreno 825 supports hardware-accelerated ray tracing and Snapdragon Elite Gaming features such as Snapdragon Game Super Resolution 2.0 and Adreno Image Motion Engine 2.0.

The updated Qualcomm Hexagon NPU delivers up to 44% better performance for on-device AI tasks. The new Qualcomm platform also features an 18-bit image signal processor (ISP) that supports cameras with resolutions up to 320 MP and 4K HDR video recording at 60 fps.

The Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 includes an integrated Snapdragon X75 5G modem with peak download speeds of 4.2 Gbps, limited to sub-6 GHz radio spectrum instead of faster mmWave frequency bands. The chipset also supports Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.0 wireless protocols.

The Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 supports UFS 4.0 storage, LPDDR5X RAM, and USB 3.1 Gen 2. The new chip also enables Qualcomm’s Extended Personal Area Network (XPAN) connectivity, which uses Wi-Fi to transmit audio. This protocol is already supported by some new wireless earbuds, such as the Xiaomi Buds 5 Pro.

The Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 is expected to debut on the iQOO Z10 Turbo smartphone later this month, followed by devices from Xiaomi, Oppo, Meizu and other manufacturers based on the single-chip platform.