Qualcomm’s New Chip Could Bring 5G to Phones Priced Under $100 [CNET]

July 30, 2024July 30, 2024 Mike Sorrentino technology

Qualcomm’s newest chip is aiming to make 5G connectivity standard among some of the cheapest of phones on the market and touts the capability of powering fast 40-watt wired charging and gaming for phones priced under $100.

The Snapdragon 4S Gen 2 platform, announced Tuesday, is targeting these lower-end phones, which Qualcomm says will start coming out later this year, starting with a device from Xiaomi.

“With this new platform, the result is gigabit 5G smartphones for under $99,” Carina Affinito, Qualcomm’s staff manager of Product Marketing, said in a prebrief statement.

Much like other S chips offered by Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 4S Gen 2 targets phones that are a slight tier below last year’s Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 processor. There’s also no guarantee that companies that make phones in the US will use this particular processor, although Qualcomm’s earlier Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 processor sits roughly within the same tier and powers Motorola’s $200 Moto G 5G. Since Qualcomm doesn’t release new versions of its less powerful chips on annual basis, the 4S Gen 2 offers phonemakers another option with newer features for lower-cost devices.

Meanwhile Samsung and TCL often use rival MediaTek’s processors in their 5G-capable phones priced under $200, such as the $200 Galaxy A15 5G. TCL’s 50 series of 5G phones go even cheaper — as low as $100 for the TCL 50 XE 5G to $160 for the TCL 50 XL 5G, for instance — but are often locked to a single US carrier when hitting those lower prices.

However, many other phones that cost $150 or less are still releasing in 2024 without any 5G connectivity, and it’s possible that the availability of chipsets like the 4S Gen 2 targeting those cheaper phones will help make the capability more ubiquitous — giving even the phone owners with the smallest budget the fast speeds and large bandwidth of 5G networks.