Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus 4nm Chipset will be available at the end of June, with Motorola possibly getting first dibs.

This year's Snapdragon 8 series flagship chip appears to be getting an early upgrade. The former flagship chipset received a new naming scheme, which was changed from its previous triple-digit naming scheme after it was unveiled in late 2021 alongside Snapdragon being converted into a standalone brand (but still under Qualcomm, of course). As a result, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset was introduced, which has since been found in a number of Android-powered flagship smartphones. According to reports, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus, the company's next-generation, will be unveiled as early as June.

Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus: An Iterative Upgrade?

According to MyDrivers, a Chinese technology blog, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus is expected to use TSMC's new 4nm process. While this is a significant upgrade – especially given the 'Plus' in the chipset name – the rest of the specifications remain largely unchanged.

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To put it another way, moving to a more advanced lithography process for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus means that the transistors in the chipset will become even denser, resulting in more power per unit area in the chipset. At the same time, the Gen 1 Plus based on the 4nm process should be more power-efficient than its predecessor at the same performance level.

This type of upgrade is usually reserved for later in the processor cycle, rather than mid-life. Given that this chip is rumoured to be called Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus, it appears to be an incremental upgrade rather than a full-cycle upgrade. It's unclear whether this is a necessary industry move – the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 has seen widespread adoption, and the chipset crisis is far from over.

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According to MyDrivers, the new processor could be found in a Motorola smartphone in the near future. Motorola had previously debuted with the previous chipset, and with the 'Plus' cycle, Qualcomm may once again give Motorola bragging rights. The Motorola Edge 30 Ultra, in particular, could be the first smartphone to use this processor.

Mid-life upgrades to flagship processors have typically only provided minor improvements, and serve as a way for chipmakers to correct a previous error. Previous Qualcomm flagships in the 'Plus' cycle, for example, only improved peak core clock speed; however, a full process upgrade would be a first. It remains to be seen if the chipset is indeed unveiled in June, with the first phone based on it expected to be unveiled in July this year, according to MyDrivers.