Qualcomm has announced the new Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 processor, designed to offer improvements across the board for the best mid-range phones.
The Gen 4 replaces the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 model, which was announced all the way back in November 2023. Was it worth the wait? Well it certainly appears so.
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Qualcomm is promising a 27% increase in CPU performance, 30% boost in GPU performance and a whopping 65% boost for AI performance thanks to the inclusion of the Qualcomm Hexagon NPU.
That CPU offers a max clock speed of 2.8GHz, while there are four performance cores hitting 2.4GHz and a trio of efficiency cores keeping everything ticking over nicely at 1.8GHz.
There’s also a significant upgrade when it comes to connectivity standards, with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.0 now supported. The former means double the potential Wi-Fi speeds, up to 5.8Gbps from 2.9Gbps on the Gen 3 model. Of course, you’ll need a compatible network.
There’s also a focus on improving multimedia performance across the board. There’s support for some of the Snapdragon Elite Gaming features. That platform aims to bring improved HDR, desktop level lighting and post-processing effects, and smoother performance across longer gaming sessions. It’s not clear which, if any of those features have made it to this mid-level chip.
Qualcomm doesn’t go into too much detail but says there’s support for the Qualcomm Adaptive Performance Engine 4.0 and Snapdragon Adaptive Game Configuration. On the audio side of things, you’ll also get Qualcomm Expanded Personal Area Network (XPAN) support.
This Snapdragon Sound feature “enhances audio streaming quality – as well as seamlessly scaling the codec rate as the Bluetooth link changes to ensure no audio dropouts or glitching. XPAN is designed to help devices seamlessly switch across Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections to maintain the best link quality and audio experience, whether it’s a voice call, music stream, or interacting with an AI assistant.”
Qualcomm has confirmed the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 will be coming to phones from Honor, realme, and Vivo first with more manufacturers to follow.
