Qualcomm announced its new Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 relatively discreetly a few days ago. This mid-range chip, engraved in 4 nm, is intended to close a blind spot in the American manufacturer’s offering: the “low” of its mid-range. Range.
With its new Snapdragon 7s Gen 2, Qualcomm wants to enrich its mid-range offering // Source: Qualcomm
While its competitor MediaTek is pushing hard into the high-end sector after massive investments in accessible chips, Qualcomm seems to be taking the opposite approach. With its inevitable Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (and soon Gen 3) very solidly positioned in the premium segment, the American mobile chip developer announced over the weekend a new SoC that aims to strengthen its position, but this time in the mid-range.
The Snapdragon 7s Gen 2, this is the name of this new SoC, is intended to meet the expectations of smartphone manufacturers who want honorable performance… for a limited budget that is significantly lower than what you would pay to use the services of a Snapdragon 8 series required.
A more modest chip but good value for money?
As the nomenclature suggests, this new “S” chip is less efficient than the “classic” Snapdragon 7 series. Its CPU is slower and its ISP is less impressive. So we find an 8-core CPU that combines 4 high-performance cores with a clock speed of 2.4 GHz and 4 high-performance cores with 1.95 GHz. This CPU part can rely on the support of LPDDR5 RAM at 3200 MHz.
Qualcomm is currently not providing any information about the graphics part integrated into its chip, but it is an Adreno iGPU that can support up to Full HD+ screens at 144 Hz.
This new Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 is also happy with the FastConnect 6700 platform (inferior to the FastConnect 6900 available on the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2). Maximum download speed is 2.9 Gbps, while supported Bluetooth is limited to version 5.2. However, low-power audio is supported, as GSMArena points out.
In the photo area, Qualcomm relies on a Spectra ISP that can manage up to 200 Mpx and record in 4K at 30 FPS. We also note support for USB-C 3.1 and the Quick Charge 4+ standard.
As for the launch of this Snapdragon 7s Gen 2, some rumors suggest that the launch of the Redmi Note 13 will happen very soon. However, Qualcomm has not made any official statements at this point.