Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 vs Dimensity 6100+

The smartphone market has finally begun shifting to 5G and as a result, chip makers and smartphone OEMs have had to oblige. Two SoCs that may feature prominently are the Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 and the Dimensity 6100+. Which one is the better SoC?

The Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 was announced in October of 2022 and it is designed for the lower-end market. However, after a brief look at the spec sheet of this SoC, this author believes that the 4 Gen 1 is a lower midrange SoC.

With that being said, this SoC hasn’t enjoyed a lot of patronage from smartphone manufacturers. At this moment, it can only be found on the Redmi Note 12 5G, Redmi Note 12R Pro, and the Vivo iQOO Z6 Lite.

The MediaTek Dimensity 6100+ is the newer of the two. It was announced in July of 2023 and it represents MediaTek’s efforts to rebrand their old Helio chipsets into Dimensity ones.

The 6100+ has quickly found favour with Chinese smartphone maker Realme. It has already appeared in the Realme 11x 5G, Realme 11 5G, and the Realme Narzo 60x 5G.

Now that we have covered all that, let us move on to the actual comparison proper.

» See: Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 vs Dimensity 6100+ - Full Specs comparison

Performance of the Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 vs Dimensity 6100+

The 4 Gen 1 uses the better Cortex A78 (2.0GHz) CPU cores but they are clocked slower than the Cortex A76 (2.2GHz) CPUs on the Dimensity 6100+. This allows the Cortex A76 CPU cores to catch up somewhat on performance. As a result, even though the 4 Gen 1 is slightly ahead, both SoCs post a very similar overall performance.

Gaming performance of the Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 vs Dimensity 6100+

In the gaming department, MediaTek’s decision to stick with the dated Mali G57 MP2 is counterproductive here for the Dimensity 6100+. This is because the 4 Gen 1 uses a newer and better Adreno 619 GPU and thus, performs better at everything gaming and graphics.

RAM and Storage

This one here is a tie as both SoCs use the same LPDDR4x RAM capped at 2133MHz and support the same UFS 2.2 storage. The Dimensity 6100+ supports up to 12GB of RAM space, 4 more than the 4 Gen 1. However, I highly doubt that smartphone companies will go that high for lower midrange devices.

Cameras and Video

Both SoCs support up to 108MP cameras and record videos at 1080p. However, the 4 Gen 1 can record 1080p videos at 60fps whilst the Dimensity 6100+ can only do so at 30fps. In addition, the Spectra ISP + Hexagon combo on the 4 Gen 2 is demonstrably better than the Imagiq + Neuropilot on the 6100+.

Connectivity

Both SoCs support 5G, 4G, 3G, and 2G networks. They also both support WiFi 5, Bluetooth 5.2, and an assortment of GPS technologies. The only difference here is that the 6100+ has a slightly faster download speed on 5G.

Battery life

Again, both SoCs are built on the current gen 6nm TSMC fabrication. As a result, they’ll both have similar battery efficiency, consumption, and heating.

Conclusion

This one has been a rather close comparison. Both SoCs are closely matched in every department with the 4 Gen 1 just edging ahead in most of them. As a result, it is this author’s preferred choice in this draw. The Dimensity 6100+ is also a decent SoC as well and is a good choice as well but it is just behind the 4 Gen 1.