Xiaomi to Equip Premium Smartphones With Snapdragon 8-Series Chips as Part of Multi-Year Agreement

Qualcomm on Tuesday announced that it has extended its collaboration with Xiaomi. As part of a new multi-year agreement signed by the companies, Xiaomi will equip its upcoming premium smartphones with flagship Snapdragon chips from Qualcomm. Both companies have been working together for the past 15 years, and many of Xiaomi's high-end smartphones, including the current Xiaomi 15 model, are equipped with Snapdragon chips. The company has also confirmed that it's next flagship handset will be one of the first phones to feature Qualcomm's next high-end Snapdragon chip.

Xiaomi to Be One of the First to Adopt Next-Generation Snapdragon Chip

As part of Qualcomm and Xiaomi's new multi-year agreement, the latter will continue to equip its premium smartphones with Snapdragon 8-series chips in China and other markets. The companies extended their collaboration after 15 years of Xiaomi equipping its smartphones with Snapdragon processors. 

The Xiaomi 15 was launched in China last year with a Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, and its successor — the purported Xiaomi 16 — will also feature Qualcomm's next flagship processor, which is expected to arrive later this year as the Snapdragon Elite 2.

The announcement effectively confirms that the Xiaomi 16 will be one of the first flagship smartphones to be equipped with the successor to the Snapdragon 8 Elite, later this year. Qualcomm also says Xiaomi will increase volume with each year of the multi-year agreement.

Qualcomm has also confirmed that its Snapdragon Summit will take place earlier this year, from September 23 to September 25. The chipmaker's annual event is typically held in October, and the decision to launch its next flagship chip a month earlier than usual could give phone makers more time to equip their premium phones with the chipset.

The successor to the Snapdragon 8 Elite is said to offer up to 25 percent better performance, and could arrive with support for next-generation LPDDR6 RAM. It might be produced using TSMC's N3P (3nm) process technology, offering greater efficiency than the company's existing chipset.

Meanwhile, Xiaomi is also preparing to launch the XRING 01 SoC as its own smartphone processor. The company is expected to announce more details about the chip later this month. It was recently spotted on Geekbench, and its benchmark scores suggest it sits between the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and the Snapdragon 8 Elite in terms of performance.

The upcoming Xiaomi 15s Pro is expected to be the first smartphone to arrive with the XRING 01, and it is slated to launch in China on May 22. Thanks to the extended agreement with Qualcomm, we know that the XRING chip won't replace flagship Snapdragon chips from Qualcomm on the company's most expensive models for the coming years.