When it comes to pure power for an Android device, most people look at Qualcomm's Snapdragon line of chips. For the most part, they've remained the top option when it comes to performance, though MediaTek and Samsung are both making good competitors these days.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 is the upcoming top-of-the-line chip from Qualcomm, and if reports are to be believed, this chip might be so powerful that flagship smartphones might need to consider much bigger batteries.
Flagship Manufacturers Might Need To Aim For 6,000 mAh With The SD 8 Gen 4
Digital Chat Station, a pretty reputable leaker on Weibo, has given us our first interesting piece of information regarding the upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chipset. While reports seemed to hint at the chipset being built on a 3nm process (which in theory, should make it more power-efficient), it seems that the chip is going to be a major power hog due to very high performance.
It seems that three companies have already started testing the chipset in some of their upcoming flagships, and each of these phones has a 5,500 mAh battery capacity. Digital Chat Station also mentioned in one of his replies that battery capacities may generally exceed 6,000 mAh in many of the flagships that will opt for this chip.
The question is, why is Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 going to be so power-hungry? The answer seems to be that efficiency won't be in the plans for this SoC. Most chips come with performance cores for intense work like video editing and gaming, and efficiency cores to save battery for less demanding tasks. However, it seems this chip is going to pass on efficiency cores and go all performance.
Of course, this also means that there's a risk of this chip also turning your phone into a hand warmer, but along with bigger batteries, I assume that interested flagships will also come with well-thought-out cooling mechanisms.
Rumor Has It That The Exynos 2500 Will Beat Qualcomm's Next Chip In Performance
Now, take this with a healthy dose of skepticism, but a rumor from a now-protected account on X, called PandaFlashPro, claims that the Exynos 2500 is going to come swinging for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, and will in fact, beat it in both efficiency and power. Considering the original leaker has locked their account, it's hard to take this with much certainty, however, if it is true, that would be incredibly interesting.
Samsung's Exynos chips aren't the best known for performance, especially when placed beside Qualcomm's options. However, the Exynos 2400 wasn't a slouch and if the Exynos 2500 manages to match up with the SD 8 Gen 4, I won't be too shocked at that (though I still feel these claims are very bold).
Again, it is also rumored that the chip might opt for a Google-made NPU instead of one fabricated by Samsung. This would be a good move especially if Samsung's direction for AI is to rely on the direction that Google plans to go in with Gemini.
Again, all of these are loose rumors, but if we hear anything more certain, we'll be sure to let you all know.
