Xiaomi’s Own 5G Chip Rivalling Qualcomm Will Arrive During 1H 2025

Xiaomi, a global leader in smartphone shipments, has a history of utilizing chipsets from various manufacturers, including Qualcomm, MediaTek, and Shanghai-based Unisoc. Earlier this year, reports surfaced of a partnership between Xiaomi and Unisoc to co-develop a 4nm chipset.

New information suggests that the first Xiaomi-branded chipset born from this collaboration is expected to launch in early 2025.

Reliable tipster Yogesh Brar has revealed new details about Xiaomi’s upcoming chipset. The chip, produced using TSMC’s 4nm N4P node, will reportedly feature a 5G modem developed by Unisoc. Performance is expected to rival Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, which powered flagship devices in 2021 and 2022.

If the rumor about the chipset’s performance is true, we can expect to see it in mid-range as well as some high-end devices. If the venture proves successful, we can expect to see the in-house Xiaomi chip in more devices later. Performance numbers should likely see an improvement later on too.

As for Xiaomi’s flagship devices, those will likely continue to use Qualcomm and MediaTek’s top-end devices such as the upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, which will power the yet-to-be-announced Xiaomi 15.

This isn’t Xiaomi’s first foray into chipset development. In 2017, the company released the Mi 5c smartphone, powered by its Surge S1 chipset. This mid-range chip, built on a 28nm process, featured eight Cortex-A53 cores and a Mali-T860 GPU. Other than SoCs, Xiaomi also produces some of its Image Signal Processors (ISPs) and charging chips.