Qualcomm Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 brings a speed boost to budget phones (still tops out at WiFi 5)

Qualcomm’s latest chip for budget smartphones brings a 10% boost in CPU performance and new AI-enhanced photography features. The new Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 processor also brings support for LPDDR5x memory, UFS 3.1 storage, and it’s the first Snapdragon 4-series chip manufactured on a 4nm process.

But the new processor isn’t necessarily an upgrade over last year’s Gen 1 chip in every respect.

Some specs remain the same: for example both chips top out at WiFi 5 speeds, which seems like an odd move at a time when not only is WiFi 6 standard, but WiFi 7 is starting to roll out.

And other specs actually look like slight downgrades. For example the Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 had a Qualcomm Spectra triple ISP that enabled image capture from up to three cameras at once, while the newer Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 has a double ISP with support for up to two cameras.

Qualcomm says “multi camera temporal filtering” or MCTF is built into the hardware for the first time in a Snapdragon 4-series chip though, which should enable better noise reduction in photos and videos.

Other AI-enhanced features should aid in low-light photography, auto-focus, and depth sensing, as well as electronic image stabilization and noise reduction for photo and video.

Like last year’s chip, the new Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 supports FHD+ displays with refresh rates up to 120 Hz, Qualcomm Quick Charge 4+ fast charging technology, and 4G LTE and 5G sub-6 GHz connections. The new chip is also the first in the Snapdragon 4 series to support 3GPP Release 16 (which is a few years old at this point, but still an upgrade, I guess).

Here’s a run-down of some key specs, and how they stack up against last year’s chip:

Qualcomm says devices with the Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 processor should begin shipping in the second half of 2023, with some of the first phones to use the chip coming from Chinese companies including Redmi and Vivo.