Generative AI is clearly all the rage lately and it has gradually made its way to modern smartphones through on-device AI processing. However, this ability was largely limited to flagship smartphones, but soon it should become possible on budget devices too with Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 SoC.
The American chipmaker has just announced Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 for upper mid-range phones and it will act as an update over the regular Snapdragon 7 Gen 3. Other than incremental upgrades, it is the first 7 series Qualcomm chip to enable on-device generative AI.
The new silicon boasts a 15% improvement in CPU power, but a much bigger leap in graphics performance through its new Adreno GPU that represents a 45% upgrade. Power consumption upgrades are sadly on the lower side, only about 5% higher than before.
The 7+ Gen 3 supports a range of large language models (LLMs) as well as large vision models (LVMs) including Baichuan-7B, Llama 2, Gemini Nano, and Zhipu ChatGLM. This means that all of these AI models can run locally on smartphones featuring 7+ Gen 3.
This should enable enhanced virtual assistants such as Google Assistant, Bixby, and others that should help users with a lot more efficiency. Other AI features such as multi-language translation and transcription will also be improved thanks to generative AI, making content more accessible around the globe, regardless of language barriers.
Other technical specifications include a 4nm manufacturing process sourced by TSMC and the Snapdragon X63 5G modem with FastConnect 7800. The CPU configuration includes a prime Cortex X4 core running at 2.8 GHz, 4 A720 performance cores at 2.6 GHz, and 3 power-efficient A520 units operating at 1.9 GHz.
The chip is able to support up to 4K displays on phones with 60Hz refresh rates or QHD resolution with a 120Hz refresh rate. It is also able to handle variable refresh rates going from 1Hz to 240Hz. It supports up to 24 GB LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 memory.
The OnePlus Ace 3V is expected to be the very first smartphone featuring the new chipset, set to launch later today. Other OEMs that are expected to introduce phones with this chip include OnePlus, Realme, and Sharp.
