Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 vs. Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 - A detailed comparison
Qualcomm has finally announced a successor to the very impressive Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2. This one is the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 but is it any good? Does it measure up to its more illustrious predecessor? Let's find out.
Qualcomm categorizes its smartphone System-on-Chips (SoCs) into various tiers, spanning the low-end 4 Gen series, the lower midrange 6 Gen series, the upper midrange 7 Gen series, and the flagship 8 Gen series. In this article, we are going to compare two prominent members of the 7 Gen series: the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 and the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3.
Introduced in March 2023, the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 stands as an upper midrange SoC with performance capabilities bordering on flagship status. Despite its recent market entry, it has already found placement in notable smartphones like the Poco F5, Redmi Note 12 Turbo, and the Realme GT Neo 5 SE.
In contrast, the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 was announced in November 2023. It has been positioned as another upper midrange SoC within Qualcomm's 7 series lineup. There has been a recent trend of smartphone manufacturers showing restrained enthusiasm for embracing the latest Snapdragon chipsets. This may affect the adoption of the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 on smartphones in the long run.
Now that we have some context, let's examine these two SoCs to see which one is the better one.
>> See: Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 Vs. Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 - Full Specs Comparison
Performance of the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 Vs. Snapdragon 7 Gen 3
The name of the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 may mislead many into thinking that it is a better performer than the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2. That line of thought would be rather far from the truth. The Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 has four Cortex A715 high-performance CPU cores. One of them functions as a prime core and the other three function as big cores. The Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 on the other hand has one Prime Cortex X1 core and three big Cortex A710 cores.
The Cortex X1 core on the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 brings in a lot of significant processing power. Thus it is going to floor the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 in any performance test.
Gaming of the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 Vs. Snapdragon 7 Gen 3
The same results are repeated here. The Adreno 725 GPU on the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 is a lot more powerful than the Adreno 710 GPU on the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3. This means that the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 is going to handle games, graphics, and other tasks a lot better than the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3. This one is an open-and-shut case.
RAM and Storage
This one is basically a tie as both SoCs use the same LPDDR5 (3200MHz) RAM with a maximum capacity of 16GB. On the storage part of things, both SoCs support UFS 3.1 storage.
Cameras and Video
Both SoCs have the same specs here. They both support cameras of up to 200MP resolution and can shoot 4K video at 60fps. This one is an absolute tie.
Connectivity
In what is most likely going to be a surprising twist, you will find that the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 has a faster 5G modem than its predecessor. Thus, the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 has a faster download speed than the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2. Other than that, both SoCs are tied. They both support 3G, 4G LTE (Cat. 18), GPS, NFC, Bluetooth 5.3 and WiFi 6.
Battery life
Both SoCs are built on the same 4nm TSMC process so they are very likely to have the same battery life and energy efficiency.
Conclusion
The Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 emerges as the much stronger SoC across aspects such as performance and gaming. The Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 may have the better 5G connectivity but it falls behind its predecessor in the areas that truly matter. At this point, there is no question, the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 is the better SoC.