In addition to the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 for high-end smartphones, Qualcomm today also introduced the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 for more attractively priced devices. It replaces Snapdragon 780G and 778G, making Armv9 architecture now available for midrange as well.
Compared to its older brother, the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 is based on Samsung’s 4nm process, not TSMC’s 4N. Additionally, it does not have a more powerful Cortex-X2 core, but an additional A710 ‘Prime’ core running at 2.4GHz. It is powered by three additional Cortex-A710 Performance cores (2.36 GHz) and four fuel-efficient A510 cores clocked at 1.8 GHz. It is not clear exactly which Adreno GPU is used, although the manufacturer claims a 20% increase compared to its predecessor.
Like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 socs, the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 is powered by Qualcomm’s seventh-generation AI engine. It should outperform older Snapdragon 7 chips by up to 30% in AI-based workloads. There’s also a triple 14-bit Spectra image bits signal processor (ISP), followed by the Snapdragon X62 5G modem, a Push Management Engine, and Android Ready SE (digital car keys). In terms of connectivity, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 are supported.
The first smartphones with this technology are expected to be released this quarter; Qualcomm has chosen Honor, Xiaomi and Oppo as partners, among others. The latter will reportedly be the first with the Reno8 Pro expected on May 23.
Sources: AnandTech, GSMArena
Source: Hardware Info
