This new Qualcomm chip promises to improve the performance of affordable mid-range smartphones.

A few days ago, Qualcomm relatively quietly announced its new Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 processor. This mid-range chip, manufactured on a 4 nm process, aims to fill a blind spot in the US manufacturer’s offering: the low end of its mid-range. range.

While its rival MediaTek is moving very strongly towards the high-end segment after investing hugely in the affordable chip space, Qualcomm seems to be taking the opposite approach. The American mobile chip developer, which has a very strong position in the premium segment with its inevitable Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (and soon Gen 3), announced over the weekend a new SoC designed to strengthen its position, but this time in the mid-range. .

Snapdragon 7s Gen 2, as this new SoC is called, aims to meet the expectations of smartphone manufacturers who need decent performance… on a tight budget, significantly less than what is required to hire Snapdragon 8 series services.

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 processor is slower and its ISP is less impressive. Thus, we have an 8-core processor combining 4 high-performance cores with a clock speed of 2.4 GHz and 4 high-performance cores with a frequency of 1.95 GHz. This part of the CPU can count on support for LPDDR5 RAM at 3200 MHz.

At the moment, Qualcomm has not yet revealed details about the graphics part integrated into its chip, but it is an Adreno iGPU capable of supporting a screen of up to Full HD+ at 144 Hz.

This new Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 also features the FastConnect 6700 platform (inferior to the FastConnect 6900 available on the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2). The maximum download speed is 2.9 Gbps, and supported Bluetooth is limited to version 5.2. However, as GSMArena points out, low-power audio is supported.

For photos, Qualcomm is betting on ISP Spectra, which can handle up to 200MP resolution and record in 4K at 30fps. Otherwise, we note support for USB-C 3.1 and the Quick Charge 4+ standard.

As for the launch of Snapdragon 7s Gen 2, according to some rumors, it will take place very soon, with the arrival of Redmi Note 13. However, Qualcomm has not made anything official at this stage.