Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 SoC Debuts With On-Device AI; Said to Bring 50 Percent GPU Gains Over Gen 2

Qualcomm unveiled the new Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 SoC mobile chipset on Friday, November 17. The new mid-range 5G mobile platform succeeds the Snapdragon 7 Gen 2 chipset and brings new on-device AI-based advancements. The Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 boasts peak CPU speeds of 2.63GHz and is claimed to deliver 50 percent faster GPU performance and 60 percent improved AI performance over its predecessor. The new chip is based on TSMC's 4nm process technology and carries the part number SM7550-AB. China-based smartphone companies Honor and Vivo have confirmed to pack the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 in their upcoming smartphones.

The Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 SoC was announced by Qualcomm via a blog post. The new chip based on TSMC's 4nm process technology follows a 1+3+4 architecture and is claimed to provide over 50 percent faster GPU performance, and 60 percent improved AI performance per watt over the Snapdragon 7 Gen 2. It is further claimed to deliver 20 percent increased power efficiency compared to the previous model. Qualcomm's Quick Charge 5 technology claims to fill the battery from zero to 50 percent in just five minutes.

As mentioned, the Kryo CPU features a prime core clocked at 2.63GHz, alongside three performance cores with up to 2.4GHz speed and four efficiency cores clocked at 1.8GHz. The Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 SoC comes with part number SM7550-AB and offers select Snapdragon Elite Gaming features like Qualcomm Game Quick Touch and Adreno HDR Fast Blend.

The new Qualcomm chip supports up to 4K resolution displays at 60Hz refresh rate or WFHD+ resolution at 168Hz. The Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 SoC is equipped with a Qualcomm Spectra triple ISP that can handle up to 200-megapixel main camera modules and record 4K HDR video at 60Hz. It is said to be able to manage simultaneous capture from three lenses and provide AI Remosaic and AI Video Retouch imaging features. It supports the latest LPDDR5T RAM at 3200MHz speed.

On the connectivity front, the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 SoC includes a Snapdragon X63 5G Modem-RF system with dual SIM dual active (DSDA) 5G and 4G. Users will get Qualcomm FastConnect 6700 for Wi-Fi 6/6E and Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity. Other highlights of the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 include the Hexagon NPU, support for OpenGL ES 3.2, Vulkan 1.3, OpenCL 2.0 FP APIs, and triple frequency (L1/L5/L2) support in the GNSS antenna.

The new mobile 5G platform will be first adopted by Honor and Vivo. Their first devices with the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chipset are expected to be announced this month. The Honor Magic 6 and the Honor 100 series might run on the new chipset.