Snapdragon S7 Pro Gen 1 unveiled with micro-powered Wi-Fi and up to 192kHz lossless audio support

Snapdragon S7 Pro Gen 1 And Snapdragon S7 Gen 1 Qualcomm unveiled Tuesday at the company’s annual Snapdragon Summit, where the chipmaker Also launched Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and Snapdragon X Elite chips for smartphones and laptops. The new Snapdragon S7 Gen 1 series is the successor to the company’s S5 Gen 2 chips The Pro model is equipped with support for Bluetooth 5.4 and Micro-Power Wi-Fi connectivity for a vastly improved range in upcoming wireless earphones. It is capable of streaming 192kHz lossless audio and spatial audio.

Expected to arrive in true wireless stereo (TWS) headsets, wireless earphones and connected speakers in the coming months, the new Snapdragon S7 Pro Gen 1 audio chip is equipped with micro-power Wi-Fi support. In addition to Bluetooth 5.4 support, the micro-powered Wi-Fi connection in the wireless headsets with Qualcomm’s XPAN technology is claimed to extend coverage “across homes, buildings or campuses” from several meters.

Image credit: Qualcomm

In addition to the advanced range offered on the Snapdragon S7 Pro Gen 1, the more premium model includes support for multi-channel lossless audio streaming and multi-channel spatial audio. Both chips support Qualcomm’s hearing compensation technology and personal sound amplification features.

The new chips also have a six-fold improvement in compute power, while according to Qualcomm, AI capabilities are improved by “nearly 100 times” thanks to the new Micro NPU AI engine. The chip is also capable of changing the ANC mode based on machine learning and the wearer’s environment. The S7 Gen 1 series chips also have support for the firm’s fourth-generation active noise cancellation (ANC) technology.

Qualcomm has not announced availability details for the new Snapdragon S7 Gen 1 and Snapdragon S7 Pro Gen 1, but products equipped with these may be revealed in the coming months. The company says the new wireless audio chips will unlock new sound experiences when paired with the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC or the new Snapdragon X Elite laptop chipset, suggesting that some features may be limited based on hardware.