Exclusive | ‘A high-end experience in an affordable package’: Qualcomm SVP on the latest Snapdragon 4s Gen 2 chipset

Qualcomm recently launches its Snapdragon 4s Gen 2 chipset for affordable price segment in India at its Snapdragon For India event. In an exclusive interview with Business Today, Chris Patrick, Senior Vice President, General Manager, Mobile at Qualcomm explained why the company shifted its focus to affordable price segment with this new chipset. He stated, “We designed this chipset because we saw a real need for incredible 5G technology at lower price points. Despite our efforts, the costs were still higher than we wanted.

He added, “We visited the central market recently in India and saw great devices, but the cost was still high for 5G. We believe 5G can really connect people and enable new services and experiences, so we started designing a platform to bring incredible Snapdragon technology and 5G to devices priced as low as $99.”

He revealed that with the Snapdragon 4s Gen 2 chipset, the goal is to build “a high-end experience into an affordable package”. He claims that the chipset will offer a great camera with multi-frame noise suppression, a modem that can achieve 1 Gbps download speeds, and excellent AI technology for voice recognition and detection.

Talking about delivering good performance and power at affordable price, he noted, “What's unique in the industry is that we design our own graphics, AI technology, modem technology, and RF technology. We're even coming out with our own CPU. Few companies have this breadth of technology, allowing us to co-design these components to fit within a cost-effective package.”

But what made Qualcomm shift its focus from premium to budget-friendly price segment?  Patrick stated, “We've always been passionate about covering the full spectrum of price points. The semiconductor supply crunch in recent years posed challenges, but we're committed to reaching as many people as possible with our technology. It’s great to celebrate that commitment.”

On being asked if AI features will come to affordable chipsets, he explained, “AI is built into everything we do, from combining multiple frames during video to signal optimization and voice recognition. Generative AI, like creating new content or writing emails, will take longer to integrate into entry-tier devices due to its complexity, but we have plans for it.”