What you need to know
- A new leak allegedly details the next Snapdragon 7 Series chip.
- The chipset will reportedly feature four Cortex-A710 cores and four Cortex-A510 cores.
- Qualcomm is likely to announce the chipset at its upcoming 5G summit event in May.
It's been a while since Qualcomm gave us a new Snapdragon 7 series chipset, but a recent leak shows that we may be in for a powerful one real soon, likely dubbed the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1.
Leaker Digital Chat Station posted alleged specs for the upcoming chipset on Weibo. It's being suggested that the chip will feature four Cortex-A710 CPU performance cores clocked at 2.38GHz and four Cortex-A510 efficiency cores clocked at 1.80GHz.
To compare, the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset has a similar layout, although with a slightly higher clocking speed and one A710 core switched out for a much more powerful Cortex-X2. Nonetheless, if the leak rings true, this could be one powerful performer, especially with the Adreno 660 GPU that was once featured in the Snapdragon 888.
From the looks of it, the chipset will be built on a 4nm process, similar to the 8 Gen 1, although it's unclear who's making it. Given the throttling issues Qualcomm has faced with the Samsung-built 8 Gen 1, it's possible Qualcomm may be looking to TSMC for this, although plans may have already been well underway for the chip.
The Snapdragon 765 was a massive hit for Qualcomm, powering many of the best budget Android phones during much of the early pandemic. Qualcomm may be looking to relive that glory with its next chipset, which appears to be aimed at the upper mid-range segment. Lately, Qualcomm has repackaged many of its older 8 Series chips for lower-end flagships, but this could fill in a significant gap left by the lack of "affordable flagships" in regions like the U.S.
Qualcomm is expected to launch the new 7 Series chip at the upcoming 5G Summit in May alongside a likely refresh of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1.
