Mid-range Snapdragon gets Cortex-A720 treatment

Qualcomm is today revealing its new mid-range smartphone SoC, the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3. The 7s series, the second-cheaper entry-level in Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7 “S” series, is functionally the entry-level version of the Snapdragon 7 family — and really the majority of Qualcomm-powered phones in North America.

With three tiers of Snapdragon 7 chips, the 7s could easily get lost in the noise that comes with more powerful chips. But the latest iteration of the 7s is a bit more interesting than usual, because instead of reusing an existing chip, Qualcomm has apparently created an entirely new chip for the part. As a result, the company has improved the 7s family to take advantage of Arm’s current Armv9 processor cores, while also using bits of Qualcomm’s latest IP in other places.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 7-Class SoC
SoC system	3rd Generation Snapdragon 7 Processor (SM7550-AB)	Snapdragon 7s 3rd generation (SM7635)	Snapdragon 7s 2nd generation (SM7435-AB)
Processor	1x Cortex-A715 @ 2.63GHz 3x Cortex-A715 @ 2.4GHz 4x Cortex-A510 @ 1.8GHz	1x Cortex-A720 @ 2.5GHz 3x Cortex-A720 @ 2.4GHz 4x Cortex-A520 @ 1.8GHz	4x Cortex-A78 @ 2.4GHz 4x Cortex-A55 @ 1.95GHz
Graphics Processor	Adrena	Adrena	Adrena
DSP / NPU	Hexagon	Hexagon	Hexagon
Memory Controller	2x 16-bit channel @3200MHz LPDDR5 / 25.6GB/s @2133MHz LPDDR4X / 17.0GB/s	2x 16-bit channel @3200MHz LPDDR5 / 25.6GB/s @2133MHz LPDDR4X / 17.0GB/s	2x 16-bit channel @3200MHz LPDDR5 / 25.6GB/s @2133MHz LPDDR4X / 17.0GB/s
ISP/Camera	Triple 12-bit Spectra ISP 1x 200MP or 64MP with ZSL Or 32+21MP with ZSL Or 3x 21MP with ZSL 4K HDR video and 64MP burst photos	Triple 12-bit Spectra ISP 1x 200MP or 64MP with ZSL Or 32+21MP with ZSL Or 3x 21MP with ZSL 4K HDR video and 64MP burst photos	Triple 12-bit Spectra ISP 1x 200MP or 48MP with ZSL Or 32+16MP with ZSL Or 3x 16MP with ZSL 4K HDR video and 48MP burst photos
Encode/ Decode	4K60 10bit H.265 H.265, VP9 decoding Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HDR10, HLG 1080p120 SlowMo	4K60 10bit H.265 H.265, VP9 decoding HDR10+, HDR10, HLG 1080p120 SlowMo	4K60 10bit H.265 H.265, VP9 decoding HDR10, HLG 1080p120 SlowMo
Integrated radio	Fast connection 6700 Wi-Fi 6E + BT 5.3 2×2 ALSO	Quick connect Wi-Fi 6E + BT 5.4 2×2 ALSO	Fast connection 6700 Wi-Fi 6E + BT 5.2 2×2 ALSO
Integrated modem	Integrated X63 (5G NR Sub-6 + mmWave) DL = 5.0Gbps Dual Active SIM 5G/4G (DSDA)	Integrated (5G NR Sub-6 + mmWave) DL = 2.9 Gbps Dual Active SIM 5G/4G (DSDA)	Integrated X62 (5G NR Sub-6 + mmWave) DL = 2.9 Gbps Dual Active SIM 5G/4G (DSDA)
MFC Process	TSMC N4P	TSMC N4P	Samsung 4LPE

Officially, the Snapdragon 7s is classed as a 1+3+4 design – meaning there’s 1 main core, 3 performance cores, and 4 efficiency cores. In this case, Qualcomm is using the same architecture for both the main and performance cores, Arm’s current-generation Cortex-A720 design. The main core will turbo up to 2.5GHz, while the other A720 cores will turbo up to 2.4GHz.

They are joined by 4 performance cores, which, as is tradition, are based on the current Arm A5xx cores, in this case the A520. They can reach up to 1.8 GHz.

Compared to the outgoing Snapdragon 7s Gen 2, the change in Arm cores represents a fairly significant upgrade, replacing the A78/A55 setup with the aforementioned A720/A520 setup. It’s worth noting that the clock speeds are fairly similar to the previous generation, so most of the uncapped performance gains in this generation are being driven by IPC improvements, though the faster main core should provide a bit more power for single-threaded workloads.

Overall, the manufacturer boasts a 20 percent improvement in processor performance compared to the 7s Gen 2 model, although it does not specify whether this refers to single-threaded, multi-threaded, or mixed performance.

The graphics, meanwhile, are powered by one of Qualcomm’s Adreno GPUs. As is typical, the company isn’t providing any significant details about the specific configuration of the GPU it’s using – or even its generation. A close look at the specs doesn’t reveal any major features that weren’t found elsewhere in the Snapdragon 7. And Qualcomm isn’t relegating advanced features like ray tracing to such a modest part. That said, I’ve previously heard tea leaves suggesting this could be a next-generation design (the Adreno 800 series); although if that’s the case, Qualcomm certainly isn’t trying to draw attention to it.

Interestingly, the video decoding block in the SoC seems pretty outdated. Despite being a new chip, Qualcomm decided not to include AV1 decoding – or at least didn’t choose to enable it – so H.265 and VP9 are the most advanced codecs supported.

Compared to the CPU performance boost, Qualcomm’s expected GPU performance boost is more significant. The company claims that the 7s Gem 3 will deliver a 40% improvement in GPU performance over the 7s Gen 2.

Finally, the Hexagon NPU block on the SoC features some of Qualcomm’s latest IP, as the company continues to push AI-focused across all segments of its chips. It’s worth noting that the version of the NPU used here gains support for INT4 for low-precision client inference, which is new to the Snapdragon 7s family. As with Qualcomm’s other Gen 3 SoCs, the focus here is on local (on-device) LLM execution.

In terms of performance, Qualcomm says customers should expect a 30 percent improvement in AI performance compared to the 7s Gen 2.

All of these blocks are powered by a 32-bit memory controller. Interestingly, Qualcomm has opted to support the older LPDDR4X even with this newer chip, so the maximum memory bandwidth depends on the type of memory used. For LPDDR4X-4266, it will be 17GB/s, and for LPDDR5-6400, it will be 25.6GB/s. In both cases, this is identical to the bandwidth available for the 7s Gen 2.

Rounding out the package, the 7s Gen 3 also includes newer/more capable camera hardware. We’re still looking at a trio of 12-bit Spectra ISPs, but the maximum resolution in zero-lag shutter and burst modes has been increased to 64MP. Video recording capabilities are otherwise identical on paper, as the 7s Gen 2 already supported 4K HDR capture.

Meanwhile, on the wireless side, the 7s Gen 3 features one of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 5G modems integrated. Like its predecessor, the 7s Gen 3 supports Sub-6 and mmWave bands, with a maximum (theoretical) throughput of 2.9 Gbps.

However, keen chip watchers will notice that Qualcomm is forgoing any version information on this part. So while the 7s Gen 2 used the Snapdragon X62 modem, the 7s Gen 3 modem doesn’t have that designation—it’s simply an integrated Snapdragon modem. According to the company, this change was made to “simplify the overall branding and maintain consistency with other IP blocks in the chipset.”

Likewise, the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth block has lost its version number; it’s now simply the FastConnect block. In terms of features and specs, it appears to be the same Wi-Fi 6E block we’ve seen in half a dozen other Snapdragon SoCs, offering 2 spatial streams at channel widths of up to 160MHz. It’s worth noting, though, that since this is a newer SoC, it’s certified to support Bluetooth 5.4, as opposed to the 5.2/5.3 certification that other Snapdragon 7 chips had.

Finally, the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 itself is built on TSMC’s N4P process, the same process we’ve seen in several recent SoCs from Qualcomm. With this, Qualcomm has fully moved all of the Snapdragon 8 and Snapdragon 7 lines off of Samsung’s 4nm process nodes; all of their modern chips are now manufactured at TSMC. And as with similar changes in the past, this change in process nodes comes with an increase in power efficiency. While that’s not the only reason, overall, Qualcomm is boasting a 12% improvement in power savings.

To recap, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 customer will be Xiaomi, which will be the first to launch a new phone with the chip. They’ll be followed by a slew of other usual suspects, including Realme and Sharp, while the much larger Samsung is also set to use the chip in the coming months.