Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2: Premium Segment SoC Gets a Cortex-X CPU Core - AnandTech

After a 2021/2022 product cycle that was a bit more i nteresting than Qualcomm perhaps would have liked, 2023 has been a far more straightforward year for the prolific SoC and cellular modem vendor.

The improved power efficiency of TSMC’s 4nm process should pay some dividends there, but some of those gains have been invested into making that power-hungry Cortex-X2 viable from a battery life perspective.

The switch to TSMC’s 4nm process should pay significant dividends, as evidenced by last year’s 8+ Gen 1 part, but at the same time it’s clear that Qualcomm has been investing a good portion of those gains into improving overall performance.

Contrasted with the significant CPU and GPU performance increases, there’s going to be a lot more pressure placed on Qualcomm’s cache and memory subsystem to keep the various processing blocks fed.

Replacing the 14-bit unit featured in earlier generations of the platform, the 18-bit unit on the 7+ Gen 2 will bring support for triple exposure computational HDR video capture, as well as improved low light photography, which Qualcomm calls their Mega Low Light feature.

According to Qualcomm, handsets using the SoC will be available later this month, with Redmi and Realme among the OEMs slated to release phones based around the new chip.