Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 2 gets a HUGE performance boost

Qualcomm has just lifted the lid on its latest mid-tier smartphone chip, the Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 2. Its name might be a bit of a mouthful, but it promises heaps of processing and efficiency improvements, as well as a handful of next-gen gaming features previously limited to high-end flagships.

Qualcomm calls this “the most powerful 700-series yet”, and it’s easy to see why. With 2.91GHz peak speeds courtesy of a revamped Kryo CPU which consists of one prime core, three performance cores and four efficiency cores. You can expect up to a 50% improvement in processing power compared to last year’s Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 (there was no 7 Plus Gen 1) and a 13% uplift in power efficiency.

While the company didn’t mention which competitor it was compared against in the briefing materials shown to journalists, Qualcomm supposedly recorded 15% better single-core CPU results with the Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 2 in the Geekbench 5 test.

The new Adreno GPU provides a serious uplift in gaming potential, too. Providing double the performance of its predecessor (the biggest gen-on-gen leap yet), Qualcomm says that the 7 Plus Gen 2 is capable of maintaining sustained performance for a longer time, with less degradation in frame rate over long periods. It’s also 25% faster in the GFXBench Aztec benchmark when compared against this mystery competitor.

Auto Variable Rate Shading, which was a feature previously limited to Qualcomm’s flagship 8-series SoC’s, will also be present here. This is basically a more efficient allocation system for GPU resources, which in theory should further boost GPU performance. Improvements to volumetric rendering should make particle elements like fog and smoke look much better, and it also supports Qualcomm’s Adreno Frame Motion Engine – basically a fancy form of frame interpolation.

Qualcomm says that the 7 Plus Gen 2’s new 18-bit triple ISP (Image Signal Processor), can now capture 4,000x more camera data, with support for what they call “Mega Low-Light” images. In this mode, the camera can apparently take 30 images in a fraction of a second, merging the best shots for cleaner and more colourful images at night. This new ISP also allows 4K HDR video to shoot in three exposures simultaneously, combining the three.

Naturally, the Snapdragon X52 5G modem is onboard, providing up to 4.4Gbps peak download speeds. It also supports Wi-Fi 6E connections and dual 4G/5G SIMs.

When can we expect the first Snapdragon 7 Gen Plus 2 phones to hit the market? Qualcomm was a bit tight-lipped at the launch, but the company said they’re coming soon and should cost between $400 and $600.