4 months after launch, the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 arrives within the West Leave a comment

Right this moment Xiaomi’s subsidiary Redmi brings its reasonably priced Observe 14 collection to Europe, together with the Western debut of the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3. After launching in August 2024, the Qualcomm chip needed to sit and watch whereas the flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite got here alongside two months later, drew extra consideration, and even launched in a Western telephone first within the type of this week’s OnePlus 13. However the extra reasonably priced Snapdragon chip is now getting its dues.

There are 5 telephones within the Observe 14 line, starting from the 4G-only Observe 14 as much as the Observe 14 Professional Plus 5G, the one telephone within the collection powered by the Snapdragon silicon. The entry-level chip in Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7 collection, the 7s Gen 3 is a 4nm chipset that’s most notable for making the leap to Arm’s v9 CPU structure, with a 2.5GHz Cortex-A720 core on the coronary heart of the processor. The opposite 4 telephones use a wide range of MediaTek chipsets.

Beginning at £399/€499.90 (about $500), the Professional Plus is positioned as a pure competitor to Google’s $499 Pixel 8A, however outpaces it comfortably in most {hardware} specs, with improved IP68 water-resistance; as much as 12GB RAM and 512GB storage; and a bigger, brighter OLED show protected by Corning’s flagship-grade Gorilla Glass Victus 2. The massive trade-off is on the software program facet, particularly provided that Google has assured Android updates for the Pixel 8A till 2031.

The opposite Observe 14 telephones supply a gradual drop-off in specs and connectivity. The Observe 14 Professional 5G shares the Professional Plus mannequin’s show, 200-megapixel digicam, and IP68 score, however drops to a less expensive MediaTek 7300-Extremely chipset and slower charging. The common Redmi Observe 14 Professional is comparable, however ditches 5G for 4G connectivity and is simply IP64-rated. The Observe 14 and Observe 14 5G have diminished specs throughout the board — although the 4G mannequin’s IP54 water-resistance nonetheless impresses for a telephone that prices lower than half of a Pixel 8A.

All 4 telephones launched in China after which India late final yr, however in the present day go on sale in ten European nations, together with the UK and Germany. Considerably confusingly, the European fashions have altered specs from their Asian counterparts — the Professional Plus 5G has utterly completely different cameras and battery, for instance — which isn’t unusual for Redmi.

The Redmi Observe 14 collection already has stiff competitors from throughout the Xiaomi household, after the equally priced Poco X7 and X7 Professional launched globally yesterday. These telephones lean on IP68 scores and massive batteries — 6,000mAh within the Professional — within the effort to attract finances patrons away from Google and Samsung.