There’s a New Snapdragon in Town — Might Power Upcoming Galaxy Phones

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Qualcomm has unveiled the Snapdragon 7s Gen 4, its newest mid-range processor. While the upgrades over its predecessor are modest, the chip delivers better efficiency, improved gaming features, and enhanced AI capabilities. Samsung is expected to adopt it in upcoming Galaxy devices, with the next XCover rugged phone likely among the first.

The Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 is here with key upgrades

Built on TSMC’s efficient 4 nm process, the Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 retains the familiar octa-core layout. It has one Cortex-A720 Prime core clocked at 2.7 GHz, three more Cortex-A720 cores at 2.4 GHz, and four Cortex-A520 cores for lightweight tasks, running at 1.8 GHz. Qualcomm claims this bump in clock speed yields around 7% gains in both CPU and GPU performance over the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3.

The company didn’t stop at raw speed, though. The new chip carries over the Adreno 810 GPU, now slightly enhanced, and bolsters gaming with Snapdragon Game Super Resolution and Adaptive Performance Engine 3.0. These tweaks are aimed at better visuals and sustained performance during intense play.

In terms of visuals, the Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 steps up with support for ultra-wide WFHD+ displays up to 2,900 × 1,300 at 144 Hz, and introduces Low-Light Vision, a feature once exclusive to flagship Snapdragon platforms. This means even budget devices may soon see dramatic improvements in low-light photography. The chip also remains strong in imaging and connectivity, boasting the Spectra ISP for up to 200 MP photos and 4K HDR video recording.

Quick Charge 4+ promises to deliver roughly 50% battery on a device in just five minutes, though it depends on other factors too. The Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 also includes a full suite of radios: sub-6GHz and mmWave 5G, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.4 with aptX Lossless, and a powerful modem. For on-device AI, the upgraded Hexagon NPU now supports compact LLMs like Llama 1B and Qwen 1B. This enables support for real-time translation, transcription, noise cancellation, and more.

Samsung may launch Galaxy devices with this chip

Qualcomm has confirmed the Redmi Note 15 Pro+ as the first device to debut the Snapdragon 7s Gen 4. However, Samsung-watchers will want to pay attention too. After all, the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 powered its Galaxy XCover 7 Pro, and insiders point to this Gen 4 variant likely finding a home in upcoming XCover Pro or even Galaxy F series ruggedized models.

Written by

Sumit Adhikari

Sumit, a life-long Samsung user, is passionate about technology and has been professionally writing on tech since 2017. He’s a mathematics graduate by education and enjoys teaching basic mathematics tricks to school kids in his spare time. Sumit believes in artificial intelligence and dreams of a fully open, intelligent and connected world.

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