Qualcomm’s annual Snapdragon Summit will take place between September 22 and 24. This will be the official unveiling of the next generation of Snapdragon 8 Elite chips (two of them) and several makers want to launch their flagship series that same month – Xiaomi, vivo and Oppo. The latest rumor claims that Xiaomi will get there first.
The Xiaomi 18 series will consist of three models. The Xiaomi 18 Pro Max will have two 200MP cameras (including a 1/1.28” LOFIC sensor in the main). The Xiaomi 18 Pro will have a larger rear screen and possibly a Privacy Display feature. The Xiaomi 18 will be a tad bigger with a 6.4” screen and a 7,200mAh battery.
As for the chips, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and the new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro will be fabbed on a 2nm node (though it’s not clear whether this means Samsung or TSMC). The chipsets will have next-gen Oryon CPU cores in a 2+3+3 configuration. The regular Elite chip will feature an Adreno 845 GPU with 12MB of on-chip graphics memory. This is in addition to 6MB of last-level cache or LLC. The Elite Pro is said to be getting an Adreno 850 with 18MB of graphics memory and 8MB of LLC. There is a non-Elite Snapdragon 8 Gen 6 in the works too.
Xiaomi 18 render courtesy of Digital Chat Station
The reason for the three-tier structure is simple – price. Early reports peg the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro price at a whopping $300. So, only the Xiaomi 18 Pro Max will get the Elite Pro (and maybe the Xiaomi 18 Ultra later on), while the Xiaomi 18 and 18 Pro will get the regular Elite.
However, the three phones will not launch at the same time – according to the report, the Xiaomi 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max will arrive in September and claim the title of “first phones with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6-series”. The small Xiaomi 18 will wait until October.
As you may or may not remember, the Xiaomi 17 series became the first Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 phones last year.
