Xiaomi will bring first smartphone with Qualcomm Snapdragon 4s Gen 2 in India

Qualcomm has today officially introduced the Snapdragon 4s Gen 2 chipset at its Snapdragon for India event. Designed for budget-friendly smartphones, the processors offer top-level performance. The Snapdragon 4s Gen 2 shares the same 4nm manufacturing process and core configuration as its standard sibling, but Qualcomm has dialed back the performance of its high-performance cores to 2GHz. This puts it between the Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 and 4 Gen 2 in terms of performance.

The Snapdragon 4s Gen 2 supports slower LPDDR4X RAM. Also, the display quality is affected with a maximum refresh rate support of 90Hz. The camera setup capabilities have also been reduced. The dual ISP can no longer handle a 108-megapixel photo sensor, forcing manufacturers to opt for more modest 50-megapixel or 64-megapixel options.

The focus is on keeping affordability limited to the chip’s 5G capabilities. While it does have 5G connectivity, download speeds are limited at 1Gbps compared to the 4 Gen 2’s 2.5Gbps. Connectivity options are similarly limited, sticking to the older Wi-Fi 5 (AC) and Bluetooth 5.1 standards, a theme common to budget-friendly 4-series chips. However, the Snapdragon 4s Gen 2 isn’t a complete departure. It retains the Qualcomm audio and voice communication suite, enabling high-fidelity music streaming at 96kHz. Camera features like multi-frame noise reduction and electronic image stabilization (EIS) are also present, along with dual frequency reception for better GPS accuracy. Xiaomi is the first brand to bring the Snapdragon 4s Gen 2 to the Indian market, integrating it into its Redmi line.

Speaking about the chip’s ability to democratize 5G access, Xiaomi India President Muralikrishnan B said, “We are excited to work with Qualcomm Technology to enable access to gigabit-fast connectivity for users. Many people have not yet experienced the benefits of 5G. With Snapdragon 4s Gen 2, Xiaomi can bring 5G connectivity to users across the world.” However, the Xiaomi smartphones that will be launched with Snapdragon 4s Gen 2 have not been revealed.