How Fast Is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2? Here Are the Early Benchmarks (2024)

Not every phone needs or deserves the fastest mobile processor available, particularly if the manufacturer is looking to price it affordably. This is why Qualcomm recently unveiled the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2, a high-enough-powered processor for affordable flagships, or phones priced in the $600 to $800 range. These are the phones many people get instead of $1,000 iPhones and Galaxies.

Qualcomm focused on fine-tuning the artificial intelligence capabilities of the 7+ Gen 2 while also ensuring that it has the CPU and GPU grunt to power today's more challenging apps and games. For example, it contains a Kryo CPU with clock speeds up to 2.91GHz, giving it a 50% speed boost when compared to the outgoing 7 Gen 1. The refreshed GPU delivers a 2x performance upgrade for graphics and yet the 7+ Gen 2 still manages to tamp down its power needs by 13% to help balance battery life. Do these adjustments make for any real-world gains? We found out.

Reference Hardware

Qualcomm invited PCMag to test the 7+ Gen 2's performance on a reference design. The device included a 6.65-inch display with Full HD+ resolution and a refresh rate of 144Hz. The CPU itself contained a single Kryo 2.91GHz prime core plus three Arm Cortex-A710 performance cores at 2.49GHz and four Arm Cortex-A510 efficiency cores at 1.8GHz.

The 7+ Gen 2 was supported by 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage. Qualcomm did not say what GPU is on board but noted that the reference device included its Spectra ISP as well as the Snapdragon X62 5G Modem-RF System. The device contained a 4,192mAh battery.

Qualcomm reference design (Credit: Eric Zeman)

As was the case when we benchmarked the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, we were not able to control the testing environment nor allow the reference devices to cool down between test runs. Warmer devices don't perform as well as cooler ones do and that can impact results. The highest CPU temperature we witnessed was 93.2 degrees Fahrenheit, which isn't too hot at all. The reference devices were in airplane mode throughout the duration of testing.

The Results

We ran a slew of standard, off-the-shelf Android benchmarking apps, including 3DMark, AnTuTu, Geekbench, GFXBench, and others. The results don't come close to those of the 8 Gen 2 (and they shouldn't), but they do compete with Google's Tensor 2 chip, found in the Google Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro.

3DMark Wildlife Extreme results (Credit: Eric Zeman)

Looking at 3DMark first, the Wild Life Extreme test, which punishes the GPU, delivered results of 1,963 with an average frame rate of 11.8. That's literally half the score put up by the 8 Gen 2 (3,769), but better than the Tensor 2 (1,823).

AnTuTu results (Credit: Eric Zeman)

AnTuTu is a lengthy test that evaluates a wide range of performance factors. Here the 7+ Gen 2 did surprisingly well. It nabbed a score of 948,697. That's nowhere near the 1,282,795 we saw from the 8 Gen 2, but it's better than the 927,796 score of the 8 Gen 1, the 945,794 of the Apple A16 Bionic, and the 740,510 of the Tensor 2.

Geekbench 5 results (Credit: Eric Zeman)

Next up on our list is Geekbench 5. This test provided results that mirror those of the AnTuTu scores, meaning the new chip didn't reach the 8 Gen 2 but beat the 8 Gen 1 and the Tensor 2. The 7+ Gen 2 hit 1,211 on the single-core test and 4,005 on the multi-core test. This compares favorably to the 1,489/5,178 result of the 8 Gen 2, the 1,216/3,448 of the 8 Gen 1, and the 1,050/3,190 of the Tensor 2.

Looking Good for Affordable Flagships

All the results we achieved in the testing space fell within the expected ranges provided by Qualcomm. What's most interesting is that the new processor often outscored the results of Qualcomm's 8 Gen 1 flagship chip. This demonstrates just how far mobile computing has come and is good news for phones that aim just below the top of the market.

Qualcomm says phones with the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 will arrive later this month.