Will phone manufacturers use the Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 2?

OPINION: Qualcomm has just opened the lid of the updated Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 2, the chipset that sits only below its flagship 8 Gen series. Sounds like a major upgrade with some previously exclusive 8th Gen features moving to a slightly more affordable chipset, but the question is, will any manufacturers use it? I’m not entirely sure.

Don’t get me wrong, my skepticism is not due to the fact that this is a bad chipset, but quite the opposite. According to Qualcomm, the new Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 2 boasts up to a 50% performance boost over its predecessor clocked at up to 2.91GHz, a 2x increase in Adreno GPU, and a 13% improvement in energy efficiency.

It’s also designed to stay cool under pressure, and it’s claimed to be capable of delivering over 40 minutes of high-intensity gameplay without any framerate drops. Add in features like aptX Lossless, variable speed auto-shadowing, and dual active dual SIM capabilities previously exclusive to the Snapdragon 8 Gen flagship series, and you have a solid mobile chipset.

Instead, my concerns about widespread adoption stem from the fact that the previous generation Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 remained a niche chipset that appeared in very few phones. Although it has been used in several China-only smartphones such as the Xiaomi Civi 2, it has only really entered the global market with the Xiaomi 12 Lite 5G NE and, most recently, the Xiaomi 13 Lite.

This, of course, does not bode well for the updated Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 2. But why don’t manufacturers use it more often?

This is a tricky question and will likely have a different answer depending on which brand you’re talking to, but in my opinion it all comes down to price vs brand.

Qualcomm sees the Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 2 being used in premium mid-range smartphones ranging from $400 to $600. The problem is that at this price point, some manufacturers simply decide to opt for an older Snapdragon 8 Gen chipset. We saw this with the $599 Realme GT 2 Pro.

Not only does it perform better and have access to all of the premium features of the 8th generation, but it also looks better to consumers, since this chipset was used in top flagships not too long ago.

Will this change with the release of the Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 2 in 2023? Possibly, but I have my doubts. Qualcomm has confirmed that two phone partners are interested in using the new 7 Plus Gen 2 chipset in future smartphones, but that pales in comparison to the set of companies that are committed to top Snapdragon 8 Gen chipsets.