Qualcomm today unveiled its new Qualcomm S7 and S7 Pro Gen 1 audio chipsets at the Snapdragon Summit 2023 in Hawaii. These new platforms will bring about some major improvements for new earbuds that utilize them. Qualcomm has significantly improved Active Noise Cancellation performance and has introduced a new feature that will end range anxiety, meaning that your phone could be in an entirely different room but your earbuds won't lose the connection.
The latter is limited to the S7 Pro chipset which supports Qualcomm's Expanded Personal Area Network Technology (XPAN) to extend the audio range for earbuds, headphones or speakers across the entire building or home while providing 192kHz lossless music quality.
New audio products powered by the S7 chipsets will bring major improvements
Qualcomm's latest audio chipsets boast 6x more compute power and almost 100x more AI power compared to previous iterations. They've been manufactured on an entirely new architecture for more performance, feature a dedicated micro NPU for enhanced AI performance, multiple DSP cores, and a 300% increase in memory for overall performance improvements.
The new chipsets support low-latency, multi-channel and low-power ANC, with the company claiming that they provide the best-ever ANC performance of any Qualcomm sound platform. What this means for you is that your audio devices powered by these chipsets will provide an improved ANC experience in busy places. They'll utilize on-device AI to dynamically adapt ANC performance if, for example, one of the earbuds becomes loose when you're running or there's a sudden change in noise around you. AI will also enable seamless transition between ANC modes based on your environment.
The most impressive advancement here is on the S7 Pro chipset which features a revolutionary Wi-Fi solution that extends the capability and range of audio devices far more than has ever been possible with Bluetooth while retaining ultra-low power use. Qualcomm leveraged its expertise in Wi-Fi connectivity to develop what it calls Qualcomm XPAN or Expanded Personal Area Network Technology.
Imagine this. Your phone is in an entirely different part of your home but your earbuds remain connected to its audio or you leave it in your dorm and go for a walk around campus. This is made possible with Snapdragon Sound and XPAN which delivers high bit-rate audio at lossless quality, 92kHz scaling up to 192kHz, over Wi-Fi.
Snapdragon Sound is integrated in the company's latest platforms, Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for mobile devices and Snapdragon X Elite for PCs. When paired with audio devices powered by the S7 or S7 Pro chipsets, we'll witness a new reality for audio experiences that was never possible before. Look for new earbuds, headphones, ands speakers powered by Qualcomm's latest sound platforms to hit the market in the coming year.
Disclaimer: Qualcomm is hosting a large group of international media for the Snapdragon Summit 2023 from October 24-26 in Hawaii, including SamMobile. All opinions and analyses remain our own with Qualcomm receiving no advance preview or exercising any control over our coverage.
