Xiaomi has unveiled its first in-house flagship chipset, the Xring O1, and it’s got enough power to go head-to-head with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite.
The company also unveiled a 15S Pro phone and Pad 7 Ultra tablet that the new chip will power, plus a new version of the Watch S4 powered by another Xiaomi chip.
The Xring O1 isn’t Xiaomi’s first phone chipset, but it’s the first since 2017’s midrange Surge S1, and is far more powerful than that.
Developed using a second-generation 3nm process, this is a chip intended to rival the 8 Elite, MediaTek’s Dimensity 9400, and Apple’s A18 series.
To emphasize that, it’s also launched the Xring T1, a flagship chipset designed for smartwatches.
The Xring O1, Xiaomi’s first proprietary flagship chipset, has enough power to compete with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite. Along with a new Watch S4 model powered by another Xiaomi chip, the company also unveiled a 15S Pro phone and Pad 7 Ultra tablet that will be powered by the new chip.
Though it is the first since the midrange Surge S1 from 2017, Xiaomi’s Xring O1 has a far more powerful phone chipset. This chip was created using a second-generation 3nm process and is meant to compete with Apple’s A18 series, MediaTek’s Dimensity 9400, and the 8 Elite. On paper, it appears capable.
Unlike its competitors, Xiaomi has chosen to use a CPU with 10 cores. Four additional cores are clocked at 3.4GHz, two at 1.9GHz, and two more at 1.8GHz, while two Arm Cortex-X925 prime cores are clocked at 3.9GHz. The 16-core Immortalis-G925 is likewise top-tier, with graphics power comparable to MediaTek’s flagship Dimensity.
Clock speeds and core counts aren’t a reliable indicator of performance because chip architecture has begun to diverge enough amongst the major players. Both are not lab benchmarks, but Xiaomi’s stated AnTuTu score of more than three million places it among the best, and it also expresses optimism regarding the chip’s power efficiency.
This indicates, however, that Xiaomi is committed to the Xring O1 competing as a true flagship; it should be on par with Android alternatives from Qualcomm and MediaTek and significantly superior to the most potent chips from Samsung’s Exynos team.
In order to emphasize the point, Xiaomi is introducing the Xring O1 inside the 15S Pro, which is essentially a reissue of the 15 Pro from the previous year with Xiaomi’s own chip in place of the Snapdragon 8 Elite. Additionally, it has a rather elegant carbon fiber design. The Pad 7 Ultra, which also uses the O1, joins it. It is a high-end tablet with a 14-inch OLED screen and a sizable 12,000mAh battery, making it one of the thinnest tablets available at 5.1mm.
It’s obvious that Xiaomi has goals that extend beyond just a single chip, let alone smartphones and tablets. It has also introduced the Xring T1, a flagship chipset made for smartwatches, to highlight that. Although there are few details, Xiaomi has utilized a 4G modem to power an eSIM version of the Watch S4.
Given that Qualcomm has long considered Xiaomi to be a significant customer, all of this sounds like bad news for the company. Xiaomi is a major player for Qualcomm, being the third-largest smartphone manufacturer globally and frequently the first to announce a phone running the most recent Qualcomm flagship each year. Even though the two companies just inked a multi-year deal this week for Xiaomi phones to continue using Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon 8-series chips, it is clear that Xiaomi’s long-term strategy is to go it alone. After all, why can’t Xiaomi do the same if Apple can?
