Qualcomm is ready to bring quad-core Snapdragon S4 chips to entry-level smartphones

Two newly announced chips will bring better performance to the non-premium smartphone segment.  The MSM8225Q and the MSM8625Q are new variants of the Snapdragon S4 Play line of processors from Qualcomm.

These “Q” variants support the extra bandwidth of low power memory, and 720p HD displays and video-encoding.  Separate from these processors however are the local wireless components for Wi-Fi, radio, and Bluetooth which are housed on the chipmaker’s Atheros products.

The chips support UMTS and UMTS/CDMA.  Qualcomm also introduced a chip that will work on the variants of these standards being used in China which is where we are likely to see the bulk of these components used initially.  However, as the smartphone markets continue to saturate and prices fall across the board, these chips will find themselves in very capable, low-cost, entry-level devices sold elsewhere too.

The press release does not specifically note LTE, but states that the S4 dual- and quad-core processors are designed to let manufacturers build their product lines to support 3G/LTE products.  The new processors will be ready before the end of this year, which means that they will be finding their way into new devices in early 2013.

sources: Qualcomm via Engadget