The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 could be more powerful than we thought

Summary

• Leaker Digital Chat Station says the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 can run graphics-heavy games like Genshin Impact at 1080p resolution.
• The source further claims that a “wave” of new phones with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chip will launch after China’s National Day in October.
• Early rumors suggest the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 may require a battery of up to 6,000mAh due to higher power consumption, leading to bulkier phones.

If you’ve been following the Android smartphone industry closely, you will know that it’s all about performance and speed, particularly with high-end devices. Almost every major Android flagship today — barring the Google Pixel 8 series — is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, with Samsung using a special “For Galaxy” version of the SoC in its high-end phones. We’ve recently learned that Qualcomm will debut its next-gen chip, aptly named the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, during the annual Snapdragon Summit in October. We’re now gaining some early intel on this upcoming chipset, specifically about its GPU performance.

According to reliable leaker Digital Chat Station on Weibo (via GSMArena), the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 should be capable of running GPU-intrinsic games like Genshin Impact in its native 1080p resolution. For people unfamiliar with the game, it requires a lot of GPU muscle to function smoothly on phones, particularly in 1080p. Meanwhile, a thread on Reddit suggests that Genshin Impact might be capped at 720p resolution on Android due to hardware limitations.

Although some preliminary benchmark scores have popped up in the recent past, we still don’t have any official details to understand the true potential of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4’s GPU. Digital Chat Station further indicates that a “wave” of new Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 phones could launch after China’s National Day (October 1), aligning with Qualcomm’s timeline for the chip’s release. Although the source has a decent track record of tech leaks, we recommend taking this revelation with a grain of salt, given that we’re at least four to five months away from the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4’s official announcement.

What we know about the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 so far

Expectedly, details on the upcoming flagship Qualcomm mobile chipset are pretty scarce right now. However, a late April report claimed that the Xiaomi 15 series might be the first phone to launch with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4. People stateside will likely have to wait until the next OnePlus flagship or the Samsung Galaxy S25 to get a taste of Qualcomm’s next-gen SoC, though.

Separately, other rumors say that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 may consume a lot of power, potentially requiring a battery of up to 6,000mAh to allow a full day’s use. This could consequently mean that devices featuring the new chip could be bulkier than usual, not to forget the risks of overheating when playing GPU-heavy titles.