Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 5 brings Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.0 to mid-range phones
Qualcomm has announced two new mobile platforms for lower-cost Android phones, the Snapdragon 6 Gen 5 and Snapdragon 4 Gen 5. Both chips are built for commercial devices launching in the second half of 2026 from OEMs including Honor, OPPO, realme and REDMI. The Snapdragon 6 Gen 5 is expected in Honor and REDMI devices, while Snapdragon 4 Gen 5 will appear first in OPPO, realme and REDMI phones.
Snapdragon 6 Gen 5
Snapdragon 6 Gen 5 is the higher-end of the two. The chip uses a 4nm process and an eight-core Kryo CPU with four performance cores up to 2.6 GHz and four efficiency cores up to 2.0 GHz. Qualcomm claims up to 21% higher Adreno GPU performance, 20% faster app launches, 18% less screen stutter and 8% better power efficiency compared with Snapdragon 6 Gen 4.
Source: Qualcomm
The larger upgrade is connectivity. Snapdragon 6 Gen 5 brings Wi-Fi 7 to the Snapdragon 6 series, with FastConnect support for up to 5.8 Gbps peak speed and channels up to 320 MHz. It also supports Bluetooth 6.0 with Channel Sounding, Qualcomm XPAN audio, Release 17 5G, 5G/4G DSDA, up to 2.8 Gbps 5G downlink and FDD Power Class 2 uplink.
Qualcomm also lists several camera and gaming features for the new 6-series platform. The Spectra ISP supports up to 200MP photo capture, 4K HDR video at 30 FPS, 720p slow-motion video at 240 FPS and AI-based Night Vision. Gaming features include Snapdragon Game Super Resolution, Qualcomm Frames Per Second 3.0 and Adaptive Performance Engine support.
Snapdragon 4 Gen 5
Snapdragon 4 Gen 5 targets cheaper devices but also moves to a 4nm process. It uses two performance cores up to 2.4 GHz and six efficiency cores up to 2.0 GHz. Qualcomm claims up to 77% higher GPU performance, first-in-series 90 FPS gaming support, 43% faster app launches, 25% less screen stutter and 10% better power efficiency compared with Snapdragon 4 Gen 4.
The 4-series platform keeps connectivity more limited than Snapdragon 6 Gen 5. It supports Release 17 5G, 5G/4G DSDA, up to 2.8 Gbps downlink, up to 900 Mbps uplink, Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5.1. Its ISP supports up to 108MP photo capture, 1080p video at 30 FPS, electronic image stabilization and intelligent face detection.
Source: Qualcomm
Source: Qualcomm
