The Big Picture: Qualcomm may be the mobile chip maker at the higher end of the market, but in the mid-range, the company faces serious competition from Taiwanese semiconductor maker MediaTek, whose SoCs are becoming more popular in affordable devices, especially in China, India and other markets. other international.
Qualcomm recently announce Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 chipset for premium mid-range smartphones. It’s the second Snapdragon 7 SoC in the SoC series announced by Qualcomm, and an upgrade over last year’s Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 SoC. The company has never announced the ‘+’ variant of the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1, nor has it released the standard Snapdragon 7 Gen 2.
In terms of hardware specifications, the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 has an octa-core CPU in a 1+3+4 core configuration that includes two Cortex-X2 Prime cores at 2.91GHz, three Cortex-A710 performance cores at 2.49GHz, and four Cortex A510 efficiency cores at 1.8GHz. .
The new chip also comes with an unspecified Adreno GPU with Vulcan 1.1 support, select Snapdragon Elite Gaming features, and the Adreno Frame Motion Engine. The AI duties will be taken care of by Hexagon DSP which is said to offer up to 2x better AI performance than the last generation chip.
In terms of performance, Qualcomm didn’t provide any benchmark results, but did claim that the dedicated Kryo CPU cores will deliver more than 50 percent improved performance over its predecessor. Adreno GPU is said to pack 2x the performance of the last generation chip.
Qualcomm also claims that the new chip is up to 13 percent more power efficient than the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 in “extended daily use,” thanks to TSMC’s 4nm process technology. For comparison, the Gen 1 chip is built on Samsung’s 4nm process node.
Like its predecessor, the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 also supports LPDDR5 (not LPDDR5X) memory running at 3200MHz. The new SoC also has an integrated Snapdragon X62 cellular modem with 5G NR sub-6 support and mmWave support. Qualcomm claims that the modem supports download speeds of up to 4.4Gbps and dual-active 5G. Other connectivity features include Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth v5.3.
Photography is one of the main areas of improvement in the new chip, with Qualcomm’s 18-bit Triple Spectra processor from the Snapdragon 8 series replacing the 14-bit unit found in the first-generation Snapdragon 7. With improved dynamic range. It is also expected to enable brighter shots with less noise in low-light situations.
The Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 will be used by a number of Android vendors, including Xiaomi and BBK Electronics in their Redmi and Realme brands, respectively. Devices powered by the new chipset will start hitting the market before the end of this month.
