Qualcomm Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 delivers faster performance, better photography and more

big picture: Qualcomm may be the top mobile chip maker in the upper end of the market, but in the mid-end the company faces serious competition from Taiwanese semiconductor company MediaTek, whose SoCs are becoming more common in affordable devices, especially in China and India. and other international markets.

Qualcomm recently announced Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 mobile chipset for premium mid-range smartphones. This is the second Snapdragon 7-series SoC announced by Qualcomm and an upgrade from last year’s Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 SoC. The company has never announced a “+” variant of the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1, nor has it released a standard Snapdragon 7 Gen 2.

In terms of hardware specifications, the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 features an octa-core processor with a 1+3+4 core configuration, which includes a Cortex-X2 Prime core clocked at 2.91GHz, three Cortex-A710 Performance cores clocked at 2, 49 GHz and four Cortex-A710 Performance cores clocked at 2.49 GHz. Cortex A510 Efficiency cores @ 1.8GHz.

The new chip also comes with an unspecified Vulcan 1.1-enabled Adreno GPU, some Snapdragon Elite Gaming features, and Adreno Frame Motion Engine. The AI ​​duties will be taken over by the Hexagon DSP, which is said to deliver up to 2x better AI performance than the latest generation chip.

In terms of performance, Qualcomm did not provide any benchmark results, but did say that the special Kryo CPU cores will offer a performance boost of more than 50 percent over its predecessor. The Adreno GPU is said to have twice the performance of the latest generation chip.

Qualcomm also claims that the new chip is 13 percent more power efficient than the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 in “extended everyday use,” thanks in no small part to TSMC’s 4nm process. In comparison, the Gen 1 chip was manufactured using Samsung’s 4nm process.

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 and mmWave support. Qualcomm claims that the modem supports download speeds up to 4.4Gbps and dual active 5G. Other connectivity features include Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth v5.3.

Photography is one of the major improvements in the new chip: Qualcomm’s triple 18-bit Spectra ISP from the Snapdragon 8 series replaces the 14-bit module found in the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1. Qualcomm said the change will improve photo and video quality. with improved dynamic range. It is also expected that in low light conditions it will allow you to take brighter pictures with less noise.

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 based on the new chipset will hit the market before the end of this month.