Oppo Tipped to be Independently Developing Smartphone SoC, Could Debut in 2024

Oppo is tipped to be working on its own smartphone processor that could soon make its debut on the company's upcoming handsets. While Oppo has used chipsets from manufacturers like Qualcomm and MediaTek until now, the company is said to be working on its on processors. The Chinese smartphone manufacturer is working on a specialised chipset that will power its smartphones by next year, according to a reliable tipster. The firm is said to have hired thousands of workers for the project. However, it is yet to officially announce any plans to develop its own smartphone SoC.

According to a recent tweet by tipster Ice Universe, Oppo could be working on independently developing a processor which could be used in smartphones as soon as 2024. Other major smartphone manufacturers have previously shown interest in developing dedicated processors, either in partnership with other chip manufacturers, or through independent research and development.

Oppo has also hired a chip development team of thousands of dedicated professionals for this regard, the tipster said, adding that the chip could be used on Oppo phones in 2024.

Other smartphone manufacturers have chosen to partner with other chipmakers like Samsung, or Qualcomm as building a chipset from ground up is perceived as an extremely complicated process.

Google previously partnered with South Korean conglomerate Samsung to design its own Tensor chipset that featured on the Pixel 6 series. The companies also worked on a second-generation Tensor G2 chip that powers Google's latest Google Pixel 7 and Google Pixel 7 Pro.

Samsung has also reportedly formed a dedicated application processor (AP) team, and could be planning a custom chip for its Galaxy smartphones, separate from its Exynos chips that are supplied by Samsung System LSI.

MediaTek previously announced the Dimensity 5G Open Resource Architecture which seeked to make its chipsets available for customisation by smartphone makers, according to a report by GSMArena.

As previously mentioned, it is important to note that the company is yet to make any official announcement regarding its plans to develop its own processor for smartphones.