Quick Cost: The Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 2 is succesful, however will any telephones use it?

OPINION: Qualcomm has simply lifted the lid on the upgraded Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 2, the chipset that sits simply under its flagship 8 Gen collection. It feels like a stable improve with some beforehand unique 8 Gen options trickling all the way down to the marginally extra inexpensive chipset, however the query is, will any producers truly use it? I’m not so positive. 

Don’t get me incorrect, my scepticism doesn’t come from the truth that it’s not a very good chipset – fairly the other truly. Based on Qualcomm, the brand new Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 2 boasts as much as a 50% increase in efficiency in comparison with its predecessor with as much as 2.91GHz clock speeds, a 2x increase to the Adreno GPU and a 13% increase to vitality effectivity.

It’s additionally designed to maintain cool beneath strain, with claims of having the ability to ship over 40 minutes of high-intensity gameplay with none sort of degradation in body fee. Throw in options like aptX Lossless, auto variable fee shading and dual-SIM twin lively capabilities beforehand unique to the top-end Snapdragon 8 Gen collection, and also you’ve acquired a stable cell chipset.

As a substitute, my issues about widespread adoption come from the truth that the previous-gen Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 remained a distinct segment chipset that made an look in only a few telephones. Whereas it was utilized in a handful of China-only smartphones just like the Xiaomi Civi 2, it actually solely made an look within the international market with the Xiaomi 12 Lite 5G NE and, most lately, the Xiaomi 13 Lite.  

That actually doesn’t bode nicely for the upgraded Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 2. However why aren’t producers utilizing it extra typically?

That’s an advanced query that’ll probably have a special reply relying on which model you converse to, however in my thoughts, it’s all the way down to a mixture of pricing and branding.

Qualcomm sees the Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 2 utilized in premium mid-range smartphones that value between $400-600. The difficulty is that, at that value level, some producers merely determine to go for an older Snapdragon 8 Gen chipset. We’ve seen this with the likes of the $599 Realme GT 2 Professional

This not solely performs higher and has entry to the total suite of premium 8 Gen options, nevertheless it additionally appears higher to customers because it was a chipset that was utilized in top-end flagships not that way back.

Will that change with the Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 2 in 2023? Probably, however I do have my doubts. Qualcomm has confirmed that two cellphone companions are occupied with utilizing the brand new 7 Plus Gen 2 chipset in upcoming smartphones, however that pales compared to the suite of firms that decide to the top-end Snapdragon 8 Gen chipsets.