The Snapdragon 7 Gen 2 is Qualcomm’s most anticipated announcement these days, especially since some benchmarks have appeared that allude to this SoC, still unpublished. An important clarification, yes, we are not talking about the Snapdragon 7c Gen 2, which we remember saw the light of day in May 2021, and which was aimed at the entry-level laptop market, nor an iteration of it. We are talking about a SoC aimed at the mid-range of the mobility market (mainly smartphones and tablets) and which, as with its top of the range, also changed its nomenclature system a little over a year ago, leaving behind the classic SD8xx /SD7xx.
If we talk about Qualcomm SoCs, there is no doubt that the one that tends to arouse the most informational interest is always the top of the range, the Snapdragon 8 in its successive iterations. Suffice it as an example of this that, despite the fact that there is still a little more than half a year to go before its presentation, the sum of leaks and rumors has already practically told us what the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will be like. And this is understandable, of course, since the range high is usually the one that arouses the most interest, although later, for various reasons, many of the best-selling models are mid-range.
Thus, and although the Snapdragon 8 is the protagonist of almost all the photos, the Snapdragon 7 aims to be the great protagonist of the mid-range. Its Gen 1 version was presented in May of last year, a few months before Qualcomm completed the nomenclature change by presenting the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1. Therefore, it has been about a year of Gen 1 validity, which has not been as present in mid-range terminals as Qualcomm would have liked. His goal, of course, is to reverse the trend with the still “secret” Snapdragon 7 Gen 2.
Without revealing anything regarding its content, Qualcomm has announced an event for next Friday, March 17, as we can see on his Weibo profile (in Chinese). The official information ends at this point, with the date of the event, but from there, and based on the context, there are several theories that have surfaced, although there are some (especially one that indicates that it could be an ultra-advanced launch of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3) that do not even deserve to be valued.
Thus, the one that carries the most weight is that we would find ourselves before the generational change of its flagship SoC for the mid-rangethat is to say, that it will be the presentation of the Snapdragon 7 Gen 2. This makes sense if we think that Qualcomm intends to bring the same renewal rate to the Gen 7 as to the Gen 8, although in the latter we must also add the “refresh” that generations are carried out every six months.
What prevents us from being able to say for sure is that, of course, we are still in the first generation of the Gen 7, so we can only speculate about what its life cycle will be. So it also makes sense a second theory that has also been circulating since the event was announced, and that is that what the company presents to us is a Snapdragon 7+ Gen 1which would mean a major refresh every two years, with a mid-life refresh every 12 months.
Now if Gen 1 hasn’t attracted too many manufacturers, It seems a bit risky to repeat platform, even if it is with improvements, with a 7+ Gen 1. Qualcomm should make a significant generational leap, with the Snapdragon 7 Gen 2, to confirm its commitment to this “mid-range top” and, in this way, try to improve the results obtained with its predecessor.
