Though times are tough for chip manufacturers, companies like Qualcomm and Mediatek are still pushing the envelope with their new silicon. Qualcomm has just launched the Snapdragon 7c Gen 2, the successor to its Snapdragon 7c. According to a press release, it will bring improvements over its predecessor.
The Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 is similar to its predecessor
According to Android Central, Qualcomm didn’t exactly rewrite the book on the Snapdragon 7c Gen 2. This makes sense, seeing as its predecessor was launched just earlier this year. The first generation was put into devices like Acer’s Chromebook Spin 513. It retains the 8nm process from the first generation with the Kyro 468 cores clocked at 2.55 GHz.
The Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 is also compatible with the same assets as the previous generation- LPDDR4X RAM, the Adreno 610, UFS 2.1 storage, and eMMC 5.1. This means that OEMs that built devices using the first generation chip won’t have to flip the script to build for the second generation.
The changes mainly affect battery life, audio, and video performance
The prominent changes are more like tweaks. Qualcomm boasted that the Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 will offer better camera and audio performance, better AI, multi-day battery life, reliable LTE connectivity, and better security features.
Devices using this new chip will be always on and always connected. This means that when you open up the device, you won’t have to wait for it to wake up- it will just pick up where it left off. Qualcomm said that it will be just like your phone. It’s not the only company to try to bring a smartphone-like experience to computers.
If that sounds like a battery life nightmare, Qualcomm also states that there are improvements to battery life with the Snapdragon 7c Gen 2. It didn’t go into detail about the science behind the improvements, so we have mostly claims. Qualcomm says that it offers twice the battery life of most competitor computers. It also said that computers using this chip will have a standby time of weeks rather than days. That’s quite a claim.
The Snapdragon 7c Gen will bring improvements to the audio and camera capabilities to its computers. This will include being able to use up to 32 MP cameras for video conferences, being able to stream video at 4K HDR, virtual surround sound, and echo cancellation. The company put a slight emphasis on improvements to video conferences.
Qualcomm has a lot of faith in this new chipset. More companies are looking to bring mobile chipsets to computers. While they are powering Chromebooks, these chips could be one step closer to realizing the dream of powerful mobile chipsets powering computers.