The latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC manufactured on TSMC's 4nm advanced node process demonstrated noticeably better CPU performance, better GPU performance, along with greatly improved power efficiency, and thermals compared to its peers, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, Snapdragon 888+, and Snapdragon 888 SoCs that were manufactured on Samsung's 4nm and 5nm node processes. This was after switching from Samsung's 4nm foundry to TSMC's 4nm semiconductor production foundry.
Consequently, Qualcomm did announce that it would be ditching Samsung and moving forward with TSMC only for its flagship SoCs, specifically the Snapdragon 8 series of SoCs, after receiving criticism and negative press coverage of the overheating and quality control issues for its previous flagship SoCs.
Furthermore, a recent article by Chinese technology leaker Digital Chat Station onWeibo, they shared the news that Qualcomm and MediaTek’s upcoming next-generation smartphone SoCs will be manufactured via TSMC’s foundry.
According to the Weibo post, TSMC will produce the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, MediaTek Dimensity 9100, Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 2, and MediaTek Dimensity 8200, which are the 4 forthcoming smartphone SoCs.
Industry insiders claim that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is being developed at TSMC more quickly than the MediaTek Dimensity 9100, while the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 2 is being developed at TSMC more quickly than the MediaTek Dimensity 8200.
While the Snapdragon 7 Gen 2 and MediaTek Dimensity 8200 SoCs will target the mid-range Android devices, both the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and Dimensity 9100 SoC are said to be present in many Android flagships that will be introduced in 2023.market.
According to the report, the major difference between the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 and 7 Gen 2 will be the switch from Samsung's 4nm process to TSMC's 4nm process. The Snapdragon 7 Gen 2 is expected to be an incremental upgrade over the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1, with few to no changes to the core layout or ISPs. Additionally, since the next Snapdragon 7 is an incremental update, the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 1 rather than the Snapdragon 7 Gen 2 could be used to refer to it.
Regarding the popularity of the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1, it is only found in one smartphone on the market—the midrange Oppo Reno 8 Pro model, which is exclusively available in China. Presumablybecause of the bad reputation of Qualcomm’s SoCs that are manufactured by Samsung, the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 isn’t garnering a lot of customers among Android smartphone manufacturers, whilst the Snapdragon 778G and 778G+ which are under TSMC’s 6nm foundry seem to be the more prevalent choice for Android smartphone makers instead.
If you fancy picking up a power-efficient Snapdragon 778G+ smartphone yourself, there are 3 options you should consider: the Honor 70 which was launched in IFA Berlin 2022 last week, the Nothing Phone (1) announced by OnePlus founder Carl Pei, and the Motorola Edge 30 which has stock Android software with minimal bloatware for users.
