Qualcomm Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 launched for premium phones; new devices to come by March-end

Highlights
  • Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 SoC will target premium but not flagship phones.
  • The chip claims 50 percent better CPU, 2x better GPU, and 13 percent less power consumption.
  • Devices based on the new chipset may launch by March-end, and cost upward of $400 (Rs 33,000).

Qualcomm has taken the wraps off its latest sub-flagship premium chip for smartphones, the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2. The latter comes after Qualcomm revised its chip naming scheme in 2021, and launched the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chip in May last year for phones that are premium, but not a flagship. Now, in its second generation, the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 claims a host of improvements over its predecessor and brings the 7 series of non-flagship chips closer to its Snapdragon 8 series of flagship chips.

Show Full Article

Qualcomm Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 specifications

To begin with, the core configuration of Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 is in line with what the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC offered — it gets one Cortex-X2 performance core clocked at 2.91GHz, three Cortex-A710 bulk cores clocked at 2.49GHz, and four Cortex-A510 efficiency cores clocked at 1.8GHz. The clock speeds differ from what the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 offered, but the overall configuration is considerably closer to the latter.

As a result, Qualcomm claims a bunch of improvements in almost all possible metrics. These include an overall improvement of 50 percent over the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1, and 15 percent greater single-core performance on the Geekbench benchmark over a competing chipset that Qualcomm did not specify.

In terms of graphics abilities, Qualcomm claimed that the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 SoC features a 2x more powerful GPU that will offer a significant jump in the graphics abilities of sub-flagship-grade Android smartphones. This translates into 25 percent higher benchmark scores for graphics tests and 65 percent higher scores in Geekbench’s 1080p stress tests. GPU capabilities are further augmented by features such as auto variable-rate shading, volumetric rendering, AI super rendering, and Adreno Frame Motion Engine, among others.

Finally, you get better AI capabilities too, with a 2x more powerful AI engine that delivers 40 percent more AI performance per watt. All of this comes in a 13 percent more power-efficient package, with the chip being based on TSMC’s 4nm process instead of Samsung’s.

Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 phones launch timeline and prices

According to Qualcomm during a press briefing session, the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 SoC will feature in phones launching this month itself. Xiaomi group’s Redmi, and BBK’s Realme, are two China-based brands that are confirmed to be using the chip soon. According to Android Authority, smartphones based on this chip could be priced between $400-600, or around Rs 30,000 to Rs 50,000.