One of the most exciting Galaxy Z Fold 4 rumors to date concerns the foldable’s specs. More specifically, the phone’s System-on-Chip (SoC). The Fold 4 and Flip 4 will feature Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 SoC rather than the regular 8 Gen 1 or the Exynos 2200. And the Fold 4 should deliver tremendous performance gains thanks to that. That’s good news for anyone worried about the chips that powered the Galaxy S22 series.
Rumors about chip choices for Android flagships coming out in the second half of the year shouldn’t be that exciting. In most years, the Android flagships launching in the second half would feature the same SoC as the phones that were released in the previous six months.
But the Galaxy S22 performance scandal hurt Samsung earlier this year, leading to speculations that Samsung would abandon the Exynos 2200 in favor of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon.
Galaxy S22 throttling scandal
In some years, Qualcomm releases improved variants of the SoCs that power Android flagships released in the first half of the year. 2022 is one such year, with Qualcomm delivering the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 to replace the regular 8 Gen 1 model.
That was even better news for Samsung fans looking to buy the Fold 4 or Flip 4. And rumors said all 2022 foldables will feature the newest Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 variant. Even early benchmarks leaked, suggesting the new processor will be faster than the previous variant. Reports also claimed the new chip will not overheat as much.
The Galaxy S22 throttling issue came from Samsung’s desire to prevent overheating and battery life issues on the handset. The software reduced the chip’s peak performance, except for benchmark apps, where Samsung was caught cheating. It’s the Exynos 2200 variant of the Galaxy S22 phones that suffered from throttling the most, not the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 model.
Still, there’s another reason to cheer for the 8 Plus Gen 1. Qualcomm moved production from Samsung to TSMC for the new SoC.
Galaxy Z Fold 4’s Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 performance leaked
Samsung will unveil the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Flip 4 next Wednesday. The phones will hit stores a few weeks later. Once that happens, users will be able to judge for themselves the performance of the new Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chip. And we’ll see plenty of reports detailing the phones’ performance and throttling.
But we have a new rumor to look at until then, which teases massive performance gains for the two handsets.
The Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 CPU will be 15% faster when it comes to CPU performance, according to the tweet above. We assume the speed difference concerns last year’s Galaxy Z Fold 3. But the leaker doesn’t specify the other device/SoC in the comparison. Should the speed gains concern the Galaxy S22, then the Fold 4’s performance would be even more impressive.
The leaker also says that the GPU will deliver a tremendous jump, rising by nearly 60%. The NPU would also be 68% faster than the reference model. Again, we’re assuming it’s the Fold 3. That’s the only way to present these performance gains.
The leaker addressed other Galaxy Fold 4 features, not just the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 performance. The foldable phone will feature a 4,400 mAh battery that supports 25W charging. That’s enough for the phone to reach a 50% charge in half an hour.
Finally, the Fold 4 will feature a 120Hz display with 1,000 nits brightness and Victus+ protection on the front and back.
Related coverage: Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 to power Android phones in 2023.
