Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 6 chip sharpens gaming & AI for budget Android phones

Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 6 chip sharpens gaming & AI for budget Android phones

Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 6 chip sharpens gaming & AI for budget Android phones ByVishal Mathur Feb 12, 2025 07:43 PM IST Share Via Copy Link Qualcomm confirms new affordable Android phones from Oppo, Realme and Honor will usher the Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 chip era

Qualcomm’s focus on making affordable Android phones more capable, remains steadily consistent. The chipmaker has announced a new Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 chip for budget Android smartphones, with key focus on gaming and artificial intelligence (AI) applications; this ideally will determine a much higher performance baseline than the Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 chip that it succeeds. Mind you, the previous generation chip isn’t exactly very old, having been released in September last, but this is simply indicative of how fast this space is evolving.

It is for the first time that the Snapdragon 6 series chip will introduce a series of AI capabilities. (Official photo)

Generational performance gains between the Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 chip and the Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 chip that it succeeds include an 11% improvement in CPU performance, 29% faster graphics and 12% more power efficiency. The gaming features that phone makers will be able to enable include a resolution improvement tool called Snapdragon Game (the idea being to do so without impacting gameplay smoothness), and frame rate improvements with the Adreno Frame Motion Engine. To be specific, Qualcomm is claiming that this would double the in-game frame rates, which should have a positive impact on realism as well as the crispness of the visuals during movements.

“Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 will drive the next leap forward for smartphones in the mid-tier thanks to significant advancements in AI, gaming and photography. This platform brings a new level of performance and power efficiency for users to enjoy virtually anywhere with ultra-fast 5G and Wi-Fi, enhancing their everyday activities whether playing, creating, or working,” explains Deepu John, senior director for product management at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

It is for the first time that the Snapdragon 6 series chip will introduce a series of AI capabilities, including the INT4 support for processing including on-device treatment for text based inputs, multilingual conversations, drafting emails as well as document summarisations. It is also for the first time that on-device generative AI support will be available on phones powered by this chip. These capabilities will become increasingly relevant, as virtual assistants find greater scope in our workflows.

Cameras too see an upgrade, with an ability to shoot up to 200-megapixel images (a lot will depend on what sensors phone makers use though), alongside improvements for low-light photography.

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Qualcomm confirms that in the weeks and months ahead, new phones from Oppo, Realme and Honor will use the Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 chip. Last year, the chipmaker’s Snapdragon 4s Gen 2 https://www.hindustantimes.com/business/qualcomm-99-5g-phone-plans-with-snapdragon-4s-gen-2-needs-phone-makers-in-sync-101722340987590.html chip showed a path of 5G smartphones priced below the ₹10,000 price point — a journey that then began with the Xiaomi Redmi A4, with a price tag of around ₹8,499. Many more phones followed subsequently.

That marked another successful chapter for Qualcomm through last year, which also saw chips such as the Snapdragon 8 Elite and the Snapdragon X Elite mark significant performance leaps for smartphones and computing devices respectively. Qualcomm would be hoping for a similar trend with the Snapdragon 6 Gen 4, because affordable Android smartphones still drive volumes for phone makers in many countries, including India.