What you need to know
- A new batch of rumors suggest Qualcomm's next mid-range chip, likely the Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 3, will be the "most powerful" chip in the 7 series.
- It's speculated the chip would use the same octa-core architecture that flagship Android phones have with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.
- There is hope that Qualcomm will launch the chip for more mid-ranges outside of China as the SD 7 Plus Gen 2 was confined to Redmi and Realme phones.
A new set of rumors suggests a substantial upgrade could befall midrange Android phones in 2024.
The rumor stems from Chinese Weibo leaker Digital Chat Station, stating the next mid-range Qualcomm chip will be the "most powerful" in the 7 series (via Android Authority). Likely dubbed the "Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 3," DCS suggests its newfound strength could come from its adoption of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3's core architecture.
This would be quite a shift in power as the current mid-range chip uses the N-1 architecture that the Snapdragon 8 Plus utilized.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is Qualcomm's latest flagship Android phone chip and boasts a core architecture featuring two low-power cores, five performance cores, and a single prime Cortex-X4 core clocked at 3.3GHz. If the SD 7 Plus Gen 3 is to adopt this same octa-core scheme, mid-range devices would gain improvements in a few key areas.
Firstly, the CPU of the next mid-range chip would see quite an increase over the SD 7 Plus Gen 2, which offers a slower 2.91GHz speed. Such an upgrade would help mid-ranges not waste any time executing tasks or even running mobile games that ask for a little more strength.
Speaking of games, the GPU is another aspect that would likely see an increase as the latest release is slightly underwhelming in that regard. There's potential for a larger boost in power savings alongside Qualcomm's latest AI software capabilities found in flagships as well.
More importantly, the availability of devices rocking the Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 3 is something to keep an eye out for. During the launch of the SD 7 Plus Gen 2, Qualcomm stated the chip would come to OEM brands like Redmi and Realme (Chinese manufacturers). Hopefully, with such chip strength, the chip will arrive for a larger group of Android phones much like its flagship SoC.
