4G is here to stay for a while longer – Qualcomm quietly unveiled the Snapdragon 6s 4G Gen 2. It is aimed at entry-level and mid-range devices, just like the other new chip – the Snapdragon 4 Gen 4.
The Snapdragon 6s 4G Gen 2 has a Kryo CPU clocked at up to 2.9GHz, which is up to 51% faster than the Gen 1 CPU. The unnamed Adreno GPU is up to 20% faster and supports 1080p+ displays at up to 120Hz.
Qualcomm unveils Snapdragon 6s 4G Gen 2 and Snapdragon 4 Gen 4
The chip is fabbed on a 6nm node – that’s old, but it’s a lot more modern than the 11nm node of the Gen 1 chip. Anyway, Gen 2 supports up to 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM at up to 2,133MHz along with UFS 2.2 storage. The USB port can handle up to USB 3.1 speeds and Quick Charge 3 tech (80% charge in 35 minutes, says Qualcomm without specifying battery capacity).
Cameras up to 108MP are supported and the 12-bit triple ISP can work with 13+13+5MP cameras simultaneously (or 16+16MP if only using two cameras, both with zero shutter lag). The chip can capture HEIC photos and HEVC videos, however, resolution is limited to 1080p @ 60fps.
As the name suggests, this chip only has a 4G LTE modem (390Mbps downlink, 150Mbps uplink). Local connectivity is on the older side too with Wi-Fi 5 (ac, dual-band) and Bluetooth 5.2 with aptX Adaptive. For positioning, the chip offers dual-band GPS, along with GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou, QZSS and NavIC. It also boasts the Qualcomm-developed sensor-assisted positioning that improves accuracy when used in a car or on foot.
The Snapdragon 4 Gen 4 (no, there was no 4 Gen 3) lives in a 5G era. Its sub-6GHz Rel. 16 modem (SA and NSA) can handle up to 2.5Gbps downlink and 900Mbps uplink. Local connectivity is still old, though with Wi-Fi 5 (ac, dual-band) and Bluetooth 5.1 with aptX. The positioning support is the same as on the 6s 4G Gen 2.
This chip comes from a more modern 4nm foundry to boot. It has two Kryo cores at up to 2.3GHz and 6 cores at up to 2.0GHz. The Adreno GPU supports displays up to 1080p+ at 120Hz.
In addition to LPDDR4X, the 4-series chip also supports the faster LPDDR5 RAM format (3,200MHz) and faster UFS 3.1 (2-lane) storage. It can be wired to a USB 3.2 Gen 1 port and supports Quick Charge 4+ (50% in 15 minutes).
Like its sibling, this chip can handle 108MP cameras, but it only has a dual ISP (16+16MP with zero shutter lag). Video recording is limited to 1080p @ 60fps. As for video decoding, neither chip supports AV1.
We should start seeing the first phones with the Snapdragon 6s 4G Gen 2 and Snapdragon 4 Gen 4 next year.
