Qualcomm's New 5G Chipset- Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 Could Make Affordable Phones a Reality!

(Image credit- Smartprix) While Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 currently reigns supreme as the company's most potent mobile chip, making an appearance in nearly all of the top Android phones now on the market, Qualcomm has just unveiled the Snapdragon 4 Gen 2, which sits at the opposite end of the spectrum. The Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 is the follow-up to last year's Snapdragon 4 Gen 1, and it builds on the foundation of its predecessor by providing trickle-down benefits from more powerful Snapdragon silicon while also aiding in the increased accessibility of emerging mobile technologies, like 5G, to users in more markets and at lower price points. The chip itself is built on a smaller 4nm process than its 6nm predecessor (similar to the flagship 8 Gen 2), with the objective of delivering greater power efficiency along with improved performance. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="2410"] Image credit- Business Standard[/caption]

What's New

Speaking of which, the 4 Gen 2's two performance cores come clocked at 2.2GHz (10% higher than the 4 Gen 1), and there is new wider 5G support as well as the promise of better network reliability, courtesy of the new Snapdragon X61 5G modem. A few quirks exist in the chip, such as Bluetooth 5.1 capability (as opposed to 5.2 on the 4 Gen 1) and two 12-bit ISPs (image signal processors) as opposed to three on the 4 Gen 1. However, functioning in the majority of other areas looks to be relatively similar to the chip from the previous year. The 4 Gen 2 is also the first in the series to include hardware-based Multi Camera Temporal Filtering (MCTF), a technology Qualcomm first introduced back in 2017 to improve the sharpness of moving subjects when taking still photos and reduce noise. QuickCharge 4 Plus support claims a 50% battery recharge in as little as 15 minutes. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Image credit- Smartprix[/caption]

Has Xiaomi made a first offer?

According to Qualcomm, smartphones powered by the new Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 will go on sale in the second half of 2023. Xiaomi's Redmi sub-brand and Vivo are specifically mentioned as companies planning to deploy Qualcomm's newest mobile silicon shortly. Actually, according to the rumors, the Redmi Note 12R, the rumored sibling of the 4 Gen 1-powered Redmi Note 12R Pro, which only recently launched in China, will arrive on June 30. This would mean that Xiaomi might actually be announcing the first 4 Gen 2-powered phone before the first half of 2023 is over. In addition to its chipset, the Note 12R is said to have a 6.79-inch Full HD+ display, up to 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage, with a starting price of CNY¥1,099 (about $155/£120/AU$225). As for whether it will appear on our list of the top Xiaomi phones, it seems unlikely given that there is now little indication that it is anything more than a Chinese exclusive. Also read: Qualcomm’s latest update to its Snapdragon gaming processor helps users experience worry-free battery drain