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The next iteration of Qualcomm’s mid-range Snapdragon 7 Plus processor (presumably Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 3) is expected to bring a “huge upgrade,” according to a recent Weibo post from Digital Chat Station. The leaker suggests that the upcoming Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 3 will adopt the architecture of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. If true, it may bring significant improvement over its predecessor.
The Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 2, launched last year, already represented a substantial performance boost for mid-range smartphones, sharing the same CPU cores as the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 from 2022. Now, with the anticipation of the Gen 3, users can expect another notable enhancement.
Digital Chat Station specifically mentions that the Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 3 will incorporate the architecture of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. The latter is Qualcomm’s latest flagship processor for 2024. This setup includes a Cortex-X4 big core, five Cortex-A720 medium cores, and two Cortex-A520 little cores.
The Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 3 may use downclocked version of the cores from the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
While the details regarding clock speeds remain unclear, it’s worth noting that the previous Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 2 experienced certain downgrades compared to the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 it replicated. These included lower CPU clock speeds and other feature reductions. For instance, the 7 Plus Gen 2 featured the Adreno 725 GPU instead of the Adreno 730 found on the latter.
Despite the impressive capabilities of the Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 2, it had limited adoption, featuring only in a select few devices from Xiaomi and Realme. None of these devices were available in the US either. With the promising upgrades expected in the Gen 3 variant, there is hope for broader adoption among mid-range smartphones, potentially expanding its availability to a wider range of users.