Qualcomm could have solely launched its newest flagship Android chipset in October, however consideration has rapidly shifted to the following technology.
Nearly as good because the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is, we’ve excessive hopes for its successor, which we assume will likely be often known as the Snapdragon 8 Gen.
And there are already loads of rumoured upgrades, together with the transfer to TSMC’s 3nm course of and model new efficiency cores.
Right here’s every thing it’s good to know.
When will the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 launch?
Qualcomm tends to launch a brand new flagship chipset yearly, so the 8 Gen 4 is extremely more likely to arrive earlier than the tip of 2024.
As for a extra particular date, leaker Digital Chat Station posted on Chinese language social media web site Weibo that it’s scheduled for mass manufacturing in September 2024.
That’d be sooner than in recent times, although Qualcomm does appear to have adopted a tough 11-month launch cycle:
If the September launch month is true, this might be earliest in a calendar yr that the Snapdragon Summit has taken place – assuming Qualcomm continues with its Hawaii launch occasions.
After all, it’ll take a short while for telephones powered by the brand new chipset to truly be out there. Count on to see some high-profile launches within the 1-2 months following the announcement, although Samsung’s Galaxy S25 collection flagships are more likely to be the primary massive hitters.
Which telephones will use the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4?
After all, no telephones have been confirmed to make use of Snapdragon 8 Gen 4. However the present 8 Gen 3 telephones provide loads of clues.
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Extremely (plus S24 and S24+ exterior Europe), Asus ROG Cellphone 8 Professional and OnePlus 12 had been among the many early adopters, so it’s seemingly that the following generations will shift to the newer Qualcomm chip.
Nevertheless, just about all flagship smartphones not made by Apple or Google might be eligible. Look out for the successors to the Xiaomi 14, Honor Magic 6 collection, Motorola Razr 50 Extremely, Oppo Discover X7 UItra and Asus Zenfone 11, although that’s not at all an exhaustive listing.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Z Fold 6 will most likely launch too early, whereas the OnePlus Open 2 will depend upon how lengthy the corporate desires to go away between generations.
What is going to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 specs and options be?
We’re not fully certain about what to anticipate within the 8 Gen 4 chipset, however with a few leaks, we imagine we’ve a reasonably good understanding of some key elements.
TSMC’s 3nm course of
Final yr, solely Apple launched a household of 3nm chipsets utilizing TSMC’s newest 3nm ‘N3B’ node.
Sadly, as a consequence of price causes, firms like Qualcomm and MediaTek needed to wait one other yr to make use of the ‘N3E’ course of, one other model of the sooner 3nm tech. Nevertheless, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and Dimensity 9300 had been nonetheless highly effective regardless of being made on TSMC’s N4P 4nm tech.
Nevertheless, based on X leaker Revegnus and Weibo leaker Digital Chat Station, Qualcomm will as soon as once more rely solely on TSMC for making the 3nm-based ‘Solar’ chipset this yr.
Shifting to TSMC’s second-generation 3nm course of ought to let Qualcomm maintain efficiency excessive whereas utilizing much less energy. It may also enhance energy limits a bit for higher multi-core efficiency, however not an excessive amount of.
Identical to on the Galaxy S24 collection, it seems like there’ll be one other overclocked ‘for Galaxy’ model of the chipset solely for Samsung telephones.
Oryon/Phoenix CPU cores
A greater manufacturing course of isn’t the one factor that impacts a chip’s efficiency and energy use. The customized CPU designs additionally play an enormous function.
In keeping with Digital Chat Station on Weibo, Qualcomm will most likely ditch the present ARM designs for its personal referred to as Oryon or Phoenix cores. These could have a distinct setup from the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, probably with no effectivity cores in any respect.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will seemingly have a ‘2 + 6’ CPU format as an alternative of the ‘1 + 3 + 4’ within the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. This implies all cores will likely be efficiency cores, which might lead to a pleasant enhance to multi-core efficiency.
Whereas this will result in better energy calls for, this ought to be offset by a transfer to the 3nm node, and so the chip ought to be extra energy environment friendly general.
Qualcomm can also be rumoured to be testing the brand new chip at 4.00GHz, a lot sooner than the 8 Gen 3.
This could enhance each single-core and multi-threaded efficiency. Early benchmarks show it performing considerably higher than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and even competing with Apple’s M3 chip:
New Adreno GPU
Rumours recommend Qualcomm will introduce the Adreno 830 GPU within the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4. We don’t have detailed specs but, however X leaker Revegnus suggests it might be sooner than Apple’s high M2 GPU in some exams.
This makes us inquisitive about its graphics efficiency, particularly after seeing the 8 Gen 3 outperforming Apple’s M2 in a single benchmark.
In a multi-core check, Chinese language tech web site TechNews reviews that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 achieves over 10,000 factors on Geekbench 6, whereas the Adreno 830 GPU maintains comparable energy consumption to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 however delivers vital efficiency enhancements. It’s speculated that the whole chipset consumes solely 8W of energy.
However there’s fierce competitors coming, with MediaTek getting ready its Dimensity 9400 and Apple anticipated to launch the A18 and A18 Professional chips for the upcoming iPhone 16 vary. It’s seems set to be an thrilling battle of 3nm smartphone chips in 2024.
If it’s good to purchase a telephone proper now, check out our present picks of the greatest smartphones, together with the greatest upcoming telephones in 2024. There’s a small probability that among the latter will likely be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4.