16-05-2025
Mid-range phones to get a whole lot smarter thanks to the new Snapdragon 7 Gen 4
Qualcomm just dropped its latest mid-range chip, the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 and it is a solid reminder that the company isn't slowing down when it comes to bringing faster and smarter AI to more affordable new chip (model SM7750-AB) is the follow-up to 2023's Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 and it's already shaping up to be a major step up. It's built on a 4nm process and comes with noticeable gains across the board – CPU, GPU, NPU – you name new Kryo CPU uses a 1+4+3 setup: one prime core at 2.8GHz, four performance cores at 2.4GHz, and three efficiency cores at 1.8GHz. Qualcomm says that translates to 27% faster CPU performance compared to the Gen 3 chip. And that's not even the main company claims the AI performance is up by 65%, which is huge. This chip now supports Stable Diffusion 1.5, a first for this series, making on-device image generation a thing for mid-range devices. Qualcomm is clearly trying to close the gap with flagship-level AI, especially when most mid-tier NPUs usually fall short. AI is also baked right into the camera system now. The chip can handle things like auto exposure and autofocus through AI directly at the hardware level. It's a first for the lineup, though we'll have to wait and see how noticeable the impact actually is in real use.
The new chip is quite the upgrade over the previous generation. | Image credit – Qualcomm As for the rest of the specs, there is support for LPDDR5 RAM, UFS 4.0 storage and a triple 12-bit Spectra ISP with up to 200 MP stills and 10-bit images. Video tops out at 4K 30fps, which is pretty standard for this should feel smoother, too, thanks to a 30% GPU boost and Qualcomm's updated Adaptive Performance Engine 4.0, which helps the chip balance power and performance during intense the connectivity side, there is sub-6GHz 5G, Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.0, along with support for aptX Lossless and aptX Adaptive audio. Qualcomm's XPAN feature is here too, aiming to improve how devices connect in personal networks.
And yes, phones with this new chip are coming very soon. Honor and vivo will be among the first to launch devices with it. Actually, the Honor 400 will launch on May 22 and it is expected to be the first out with the new chipset.
– Fei Fang, President of Products at Honor, May 15, 2025 The Honor 400 will feature some cool AI tricks, like turning still images into AI-generated video clips, for example. So yeah, if you thought mid-range was getting boring, Qualcomm just gave it a serious jolt.
