Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 4: When's it coming and what to expect?

We might have made it through most of 2024’s major smartphone announcements, but we’re quickly approaching processor season. Qualcomm is gearing up to launch the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, the successor to 2023’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 that powers most of today’s high-end Android phones.

But just what does the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 have in store for our next-gen smartphones? Here’s everything we know about the new chip, the hottest rumors, and when you can expect the official details.

When will the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 launch?

Qualcomm has confirmed that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will launch at its annual Snapdragon Summit, taking place from October 21-23. That’s right around the same time as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 launched last year. The first smartphones powered by the new chip will likely appear in the days and weeks after launch, but availability is another question.

Typically, some brands launch new phones before the end of the year, with some brands even launching devices in the days after the summit. However, these launches are generally restricted to China, so it can take some time before these phones make their way to global markets. ASUS, OnePlus, Xiaomi, ZTE, and others will no doubt be quick to announce phones sporting the most powerful Qualcomm chip to date.

The most high-profile launch featuring a Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chipset will be the Samsung Galaxy S25, but that’s not scheduled until Q1 2025. This will likely debut as a slightly higher-clocked “Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 for Galaxy,” as has been the case for the past two years.

What to expect from the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4

We won’t know all the ins and outs until the launch date, but Qualcomm’s Don McGuire has already confirmed a significant change with this coming generation. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will be Qualcomm’s first mobile processor powered by its Oryon CPU technology. That’s the same architecture used in Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X chips that power the first wave of Copilot Plus PCs.

This change is a big deal for a few reasons. First, it marks a return to custom CPU cores for mobile — based on the Arm architecture — rather than buying and tweaking Arm Cortex CPU parts. Qualcomm stopped building CPU cores back with Krait and its first-gen Kryo, opting to customize Arm-designed cores for the better part of the last decade instead.

Moving back to fully custom gives Qualcomm much more control over the performance, power, and feature design of the CPU core. In this sense, it’s put Snapdragon back on the course charted by Apple, which also licenses the Arm architecture for custom CPUs.

That said, we don’t yet know if the new CPU setup will be more powerful and/or power efficient than rival Arm components. Distilling an architecture designed for servers and PCs down to mobile power constraints is no simple feat, and this is a first-gen attempt. It should have powerful single-core performance, but at what energy cost? As part of this compromise, rumors point to two higher-clocked “Phoenix” cores and six lower-clocked “Phoenix M” cores, eschewing the now-common tri-cluster design.

How the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 stacks up performance and efficiency wise will be a big talking point in the coming months. It’s likely to be built on a cutting-edge TSMC node (reportedly 3nm), but its CPU design is very different from Google’s Tensor, Samsung’s Exynos, and MediaTek’s Dimensity, and will likely produce quite different results.

One major concern is pricing. Qualcomm already told us at 2023’s Snapdragon Summit that it expects the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 to be more expensive than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Several leaks also point to higher pricing, with leaker Digital Chat Station claiming in late September that the chipset could cost approximately $190. This would be roughly 20% more expensive than the previous generation. Will phone makers pass these costs on to consumers? We’ll just have to wait and see, but it seems likely.

Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 expected features

The new CPU design will be a major talking point with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, but in typical Qualcomm fashion, we should expect plenty of other improvements, too.

Early benchmarks are notoriously unreliable, but there’s been plenty of chatter around the chip’s new GPU. The mid-range Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 debuted a new graphics architecture (dubbed the Adreno 810) that boosted performance by 45% over the last-gen. The 8 Gen 4’s rumored Adreno 830 GPU is said to offer significant efficiency and performance gains over last year’s model. Hopefully, this will lead to better-sustained graphics performance, our chief complaint with modern Snapdragon platforms.

AI, of course, is a huge buzzword and will undoubtedly form a core part of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 announcement. According to a significant leak, the new processor will sport a revamped Hexagon Tensor Processor with new matrix as well as vector math support. This will be accompanied by a low-power AI subsystem, sporting a DSP, eNPU, always-sensing camera chip, Sensing Hub, and Qualcomm’s usual image signal processor smarts.

We know Qualcomm’s chips already support Google’s Gemini Nano for on-device AI, and these new changes will almost certainly be geared towards running even more advanced models without the cloud. The big unknown is how easy it will be for developers to tap into these new resources.

Qualcomm has already debuted its Snapdragon X80 modem, which will likely be integrated into the new chip. Key highlights include integrated NB-NTN (satellite) support, rather than requiring external silicon, 10% power consumption reduction for mmWave applications, 30% better location accuracy, and support for 6x 5G carrier aggregation.

Putting it all together, Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 is shaping up to be its most interesting and exciting chipset announcement in recent years. It looks poised to usher in a new era of performance and top-class features. We don’t have long to wait to see if this pans out.