Snapdragon 7 Gen 4: Qualcomm brings Wi-Fi 7 and XPAN to the mid-range
Qualcomm has announced a new generation of chips for mid-range smartphones. The Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 has XPAN and Bluetooth 6.0 on board, among other things.
New chip for mid-range smartphones: Qualcomm's Snapdragon 7 Gen 4.
(Image: Qualcomm)
Qualcomm's new system-on-a-chip (SoC), Snapdragon 7 Gen 4, will be used in the first smartphones later this month, according to the semiconductor developer. The Chinese manufacturers Honor and Vivo are among the partners.
Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 with a solid leap in performance
Compared to the previous generation, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, Qualcomm promises around 27 percent more CPU performance, 30 percent more GPU performance and 65 percent more AI performance via the NPU in the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4.
According to the chip developer, the new SoC is manufactured using the 4 nm process and consists of a prime core with 2.8 GHz, four performance cores with 2.4 GHz and three efficiency cores clocked at 1.8 GHz. The company does not provide specific details on the cryo cores in its own documents; Medienberichten according to Qualcomm is installing a Cortex-A720, 4 Cortex-A720 and 3 Cortex-A520 cores.
(Image:Â Qualcomm)
Apart from the performance leap, the connectivity features are interesting, which were either previously located in the upper class or were hardly ever installed due to their topicality. For example, the new Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 is the first Qualcomm chip outside of the top models in the Snapdragon 8 series to support XPAN (Expanded Personal Area Network Technology) – WiFi Audio – to a certain extent. XPAN is a technology developed by the company for transmitting audio via WLAN networks. One advantage over Bluetooth audio is said to be better wireless audio quality and a greater range.
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Snapdragon 4 Gen 7 with Bluetooth 6.0 and Wi-Fi 7
The use of Bluetooth 6.0 is also quite new. The new Bluetooth standard was only announced in fall of 2024 and, in addition to greater efficiency, also has "channel sounding" on board. It should enable more precise localization of Bluetooth devices and also be more secure. Qualcomm also relies on the current Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 7, which until now has tended to be integrated into more expensive chips.
Other features of the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 include a cellular modem that supports 2G to 5G and up to 4.2 Gbit/s in the downlink. The image processor (ISP) provides support for up to three camera sensors with up to 21 MP or a maximum of 200 MP with just one sensor.
The chip also supports Quick Charge 5 for faster charging and screen resolutions with up to WQHD+ and up to 144 Hz refresh rates. The chip can also be bundled with LPDDR4, LPDDR5 and LPDDR5X RAM and up to 16 GB of RAM.
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