Qualcomm’s upcoming flagship chipset, Snapdragon 8 Gen 1+, as leaks suggest, has already been booked by many Android phone manufacturers for their models scheduled to launch in the second half of 2022. One sure shot taker appears to be Xiaomi, as its MIUI internal source code shows several of its upcoming phones using this chipset.
The code references a slew of devices utilizing an unannounced chipset with an SM8475 part number, which stands for Snapdragon 8 Gen1+. The 5 codenamed devices in the list can be traced back to 6 marketing names of Xiaomi’s upcoming phones: Xiaomi 12 Ultra (codename – thor), Xiaomi MIX FOLD 2 (codename – zizhan), Xiaomi 12S (codename – diting), Xiaomi 12S Pro (codename – unicorn), and Xiaomi 12T Pro/Redmi K50S Pro (codename – mayfly). With so many phones sporting it, Xiaomi may turn out to be the biggest customer of Qualcomm’s latest chipset for the year 2022.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 1+ specifications
As Qualcomm’s chipset could be an overclocked version of the existing Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip, it is anybody’s guess that any phone featuring it would be a flagship device. All the hype with this Gen 1+ chipset over the Gen 1 chipset, is about the switch it makes from using Samsung’s 4nm fabrication process to using TSMC’s 4nm process, which promises to address most of the shortcomings of the former process.
This switch could translate into higher yields, better power efficiency and lower thermal throttling, calling for better prospects for Android phone manufacturers. The chipset is expected to use a “1+3+4” three-cluster architecture that would have 1x super-large Cortex X2 core, 3x large Cortex A710 cores, and 4x small Cortex A510 cores. The SoC is also tipped to include the Adreno 730 graphics.
The Xiaomi 12 Ultra could be one of the first SD8G1+ phones to launch in the market. It is likely to go official either this month or in June.
