With its quick 40-watt wired charging and gaming capabilities, Qualcomm’s latest processor aims to standardize 5G connectivity among some of the least expensive phones available. It is priced under $100.
These lower-end phones, which Qualcomm claims will begin to appear later this year, starting with a Xiaomi smartphone, are the target market for the Snapdragon 4S Gen 2 platform, which was unveiled on Tuesday.
“With this new platform, the result is gigabit 5G smartphones for under $99,” staff manager of product marketing at Qualcomm Carina Affinito stated in a prebrief.
The Snapdragon 4S Gen 2 is designed for phones that are a notch or two below the Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 processor from the previous year, much like other S chips that Qualcomm offers. Additionally, there’s no assurance that US-based phone manufacturers will employ this specific chip, even if Motorola’s $200 Moto G 5G is powered by Qualcomm’s previous Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 engine, which approximately falls into the same class. Since Qualcomm doesn’t regularly release updated versions of its less potent CPUs, phonemakers have an additional, more feature-rich alternative with the 4S Gen 2.
On the other hand, Samsung and TCL frequently utilize MediaTek, a competitor, in their under-$200 5G phones, including the $200 Galaxy A15 5G. TCL’s 50 series of 5G phones are even more affordable, with prices starting at $100 for the TCL 50 XE 5G and $160 for the TCL 50 XL 5G, for example. However, at those lower costs, the phones are frequently carrier-locked to one US provider.
Even so, a lot of other phones that cost $150 or less are still coming out in 2024 without 5G connectivity. It’s possible that chipsets like the 4S Gen 2, which are aimed at those more affordable phones, will become more widely available and enable 5G networks to provide fast speeds and large bandwidth to phone owners of all budgets.