Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chipset for upcoming flagship phones likely to debut at Qualcomm’s summit

Qualcomm plans to hold its second Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii from October 21 to 23, where it is expected to unveil the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chipset. This event is highly anticipated in the tech community, as Qualcomm's new flagship mobile processor is expected to deliver significant advancements in performance and efficiency.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chipset is rumoured to utilise a 3nm process technology developed by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). This could offer substantial improvements in power efficiency and overall performance compared to its predecessors. Qualcomm's Chief Marketing Officer, Don McGuire, hinted at this timeline during his presentation at the Mobile World Congress (MWC 2024) held in Barcelona.

Expected Specifications for Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 Chipset

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 is reportedly equipped with Qualcomm's proprietary Oryon CPU, which was first unveiled at the 2022 Snapdragon Summit. This new CPU is expected to enhance gaming performance and may support LPDDR6 RAM. Additionally, the chipset might include an upgraded Neural Processing Unit (NPU). Sources suggest that the prime core of this SoC will be clocked at 4.2 GHz, a notable increase from the 3.4 GHz peak clock speed of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.

According to preliminary Geekbench scores, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 could surpass Apple's A17 Pro SoC in processing power. The chipset reportedly achieved a score above 3,000 in single-core tests, just ahead of the A17 Pro's 2,999. In multi-core benchmark tests, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 achieved a 10,000 score.

However, some reports cast doubt on these claims. A recent post by X user @negativeonehero suggests that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 may have lower peak GPU performance compared to the Apple A17 Pro, potentially on par with MediaTek's Dimensity 9300. This user also speculated that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 might only show marginal improvements in CPU performance.

Despite these varying opinions, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 is expected to be more power-efficient than its predecessors, with reported power consumption of 8W during multi-core benchmarking.

Exclusive Launch and Future Devices

Xiaomi has reportedly secured exclusive first-launch rights for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, which means the Xiaomi 15 Pro could be the first smartphone to feature this new chipset. Other high-end smartphones, including the Samsung Galaxy S25 series and OnePlus 13, are also anticipated to adopt the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 in 2025.