Qualcomm is almost done renaming its processor lineup. The company began to drop the 200/400/600/700/800 series nomenclature when launching the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip for flagship phones, and continued with the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1.
Now the company is bringing the new names to mid-range and budget chips. The new Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 is a 4nm processor designed for mid-range phones, while the Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 is a 6nm chip for budget devices. All that’s left is a Snapdragon 2 series chip.
Qualcomm says the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 will bring a 40% boost in CPU performance over previous-gen Snapdragon 600 series chips, while delivering a 35% boost in graphics performance. There’s also now support for 4K video decoding of H.264, H.265 and VP9. And it’s the first Snapdragon 6 series chip to support 4K HDR video recording.
The first devices powered by Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 chips should arrive in the first quarter of 2023.
The Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 sees a somewhat more modest performance boost, with a 15% speed boost for CPU performance and a 10% improvement in graphics. But the chip does now support 120 Hz FHD+ displays, which is a first for the Snapdragon 4 series.
Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 chips will hit the streets in mobile devices ready to ship in the third quarter of 2022 (which ends less than four weeks from now, if you’re keeping count).
| Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 | Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 | |
| CPU Cores | 4 x ARM Cortex-A78 @ 2.2 GHz 4 x ARM Cortex-A55 @ 1.8 GHz | 2 x ARM Cortex-A78 @ 2 GHz 6 x ARM Cortex-A55 @ 1.8 GHz |
| Graphics | Adreno (unspecified) | Adreno (unspecified) |
| DSP | Hexagon (unspecified) | Hexagon (unspecified) |
| ISP | Spectra (3 x 12-bit) 108MP single-camera or 48MP with zero shutter lag 25MP + 16MP dual camera (with ZSL) 3 x 13MP triple camera (with ZSL) 4K HDR video capture | Spectra (3 x 12-bit) 108MP single-camera or 32MP with zero shutter lag 25MP + 13MP dual camera (or 3 x 13MP with ZSL) |
| Memory | LPDDR5-2750 | LPDDR4x-2133 |
| Modem | Snapdragon X62 4G LTE / 5G sub-6 GHz | Snapdragon X51 4G LTE / 5G sub-6 GHz |
| WiFi & BT | WiFi 6E BT 5.2 | WiFi 5 BT 5.2 |
| Node | 4nm | TSMC 6nm |
I’d like to see a comparison between the four chipsets: QC 6g1, QSD 778, QSD 780, QC 7g1.
I don’t think there will be much difference in the way of performance or efficiency. But these all should be around ye olde QSD 855 chipset, so they’re fairly fast by modern standards.
Although a part of me is a little ticked off by Qualcomm NOT standardizing the new family. I would have made it all based on ARMv9 and a promise of 3-major AndroidOS updates and a streamlined lineup. Leave all the weird iterations for other manufacturers, and play the long game. For instance;
QLC S90: 1+3+4, Cortex A510, A710, X2
QLC S70: 0+4+4, Cortex A510, A710
QLC S50: 0+3+5, Cortex A510, A710
QLC S30: 0+2+6, Cortex A510, A710
QLC S10: 0+1+7, Cortex A510, A710
QLC S00: 0+0+8, Cortex A510
More info:
QLC S90: 4nm-TSMC, 256-iGPU 2160p-240Hz
QLC S70: 4nm-TSMC, 128-iGPU 2160p-120Hz
QLC S50: 6nm-Sam, 64-iGPU 1440p-120Hz
QLC S30: 6nm-Sam, 32-iGPU 1080p-120Hz
QLC S10: 6nm-Sam, 16-iGPU 1080p-60Hz
QLC S00: 8nm-TSMC, 4-iGPU, 720p-30Hz
And next-years lineup:
QLC S91: 1+3+8, Cortex A515, A715, X3
QLC S71: 0+5+7, Cortex A515, A715
QLC S51: 0+4+8, Cortex A515, A715
QLC S31: 0+2+10, Cortex A515, A715
QLC S11: 0+1+11, Cortex A515, A715
QLC S01: 0+0+12, Cortex A515
I believe the Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 has 6 x Cortex A55 and not 6 x Cortex A75 as you have in the article as of 1341EDT
You are correct. I also appreciate your preemptive time stamp to keep people from calling you out after I update the article as if you were wrong when I’m the one who was wrong here 🙂