Robert Triggs / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Xiaomi and Qualcomm have signed a multi-year partnership to lead innovation in the premium smartphone space.
- Despite developing an in-house chip, the Chinese smartphone giant will continue offering flagships featuring Snapdragon 8 series chips.
- It will be among the first OEMs to launch a flagship with the next-gen Snapdragon 8 series chip later this year.
Xiaomi is typically among the first smartphone makers to launch a flagship with the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon chip each year. Although the company is on track to launch an in-house smartphone chipset this month, its future flagships will continue to feature Snapdragon 8 series chips.
Qualcomm and Xiaomi have a long-standing partnership, and the companies are celebrating 15 years of ongoing collaboration this year. To celebrate this milestone, the brands have inked a multi-year agreement “to lead innovation with premium smartphones.”
As part of this agreement, Xiaomi will continue to offer flagship phones featuring Snapdragon 8 series chips. Like in previous years, it will be one of the first smartphone OEMs to adopt the next-generation Snapdragon 8 series chip shortly after Qualcomm unveils it at this year’s Snapdragon Summit in September.
Since Qualcomm is hosting the Snapdragon Summit much earlier this year, we expect Xiaomi to unveil its next-gen flagship phone a month earlier than usual. So far, we haven’t seen any information about the device, but we expect details to surface in the coming months.
Xiaomi says its partnership with Qualcomm will extend beyond smartphones. The companies will collaborate to drive advancements in the automotive, AR/VR, wearable, and tablet spaces, and we can expect to see the fruits of this partnership over the next several years.