Remember Xiaomi’s first-ever self-developed processor, the Surge S1? The chip made headlines back in 2017 as it pushed the Chinese smartphone maker into the elite group of tech companies like Samsung and Huawei that could develop their own chipsets. However, after the Surge S1, we didn’t hear much about its chip development progress. The latest information from China suggests that Xiaomi has likely abandoned its chipset project.

According to an industry insider, Xiaomi is focusing its attention on other projects which are not as complicated or expensive as developing an application processor. Instead of making smartphone processors, the company is looking to develop low power Bluetooth, RF chips, and other peripheral components. He notes that this would be different from Huawei’s strategy of completely investing in its chipset business.

He further adds that Xiaomi seems to be looking for a balance between developing a competitive product and financial profit. In this regard, it is diversifying its chip business to avoid the long-term costs of research and development.

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Over the past couple of years, Xiaomi has heavily invested in a number of chip companies. Just last week, it acquired a stake in Hypower Electronics, a fast-charging chip maker. Earlier this year, Xiaomi made strategic investments in two chipset manufacturers. Last year, Xiaomi had also invested in a chip designing firm, Verisilicon.

Even before this comment from the industry insider, there were reports about Xiaomi abandoning its smartphone processor project and converting this department into an employee-owned company with shares in Xiaomi. So after considering this new information, it looks like Xiaomi has indeed given up on its self-developed chipset ambitions.

The company’s first processor, the Surge S1, received a lukewarm response. But the Surge S2 was expected to be the real star of its processor lineup featuring four Cortex-A73 powered performance cores. This would have made for an upper mid-range chip back in 2018. However, a Xiaomi executive revealed that the company had faced unexpected hurdles in its development project. At the start of 2019, he assured that the team was still working on the new chip.

But it looks like the company’s second Surge chipset may never make it to the market. Designing a smartphone chipset is an extremely complicated process, engulfed with a lot of challenges. Even the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer, Samsung, with years of experience in this industry, is still unable to match Qualcomm chips in terms of efficiency.

Notably, Xiaomi has not made any official announcement regarding its chipset development since 2018.

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In February 2017, Xiaomi stunned the industry when it launched the Mi 5C as its first phone that features the company’s self-developed Pinecone Surge S1. The device was expected to get a successor in the Mi 6C last year that would be powered by a Surge S2 chipset but that didn’t happen. As early as April last year, it was reported that TSMC was manufacturing the Surge S2 for Xiaomi using the chipmaker’s 16-nanometer FinFet process.

The Mi 6X was expected to be launched at MWC 2018 with the new chipset but that didn’t happen. The S2 was even tipped to be released along with the Mi 8. That also did not materialise. However, Xiaomi’s product director Wang Teng Thomas has thrown some insight as to why the chipset is delayed. He responded to a netizen’s question if the chipset has been abandoned., hinting that it has not been abandoned but that it is still under development. He also hinted that the process is being belayed by some unexpected issues.

Read Also: Xiaomi Surge S1 Antutu Performance inside the Mi 5C Revealed

The Surge S2 is expected to utilise an octa-core design comprising four Cortex-A73 cores and four Cortex-A53 cores. The Cortex- A73 cores are clocked at around 2.2GHz while the Cortex-A53 will come with a clock frequency of around 1.8 GHz. The device will come with a Mali G71MP8 GPU which will support UFS2.1 and LPDDR4 memory. Unfortunately, the chipset will still not feature support for CDMA network. However, the Surge S2’s comprehensive performance evaluation seems to be the same as the Kirin 960. In contrast, the Surge S1’s performance is slightly higher than Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 625 chipset. The S1 is an octa-core processor with four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 2.2GHz and another four A53 clocked at 1.4GHz while the GPU is ARM’s Mali-T860.

(via)

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Xiaomi Mi 8 flagship phone will be debuting in the next week. However, a recent report has revealed that the company may launch as many as three smartphones will be unleashed at the Shenzhen event. Ishan Agarwal, a reliable tipster from India has claimed that the upcoming Xiaomi flagship phones are Xiaomi Mi 8 and Xiaomi Mi 8 SE (Special Edition?). He has also revealed some key information on the storage and color variants of both phones.

After scouring through the internal code of the Xiaomi’s website, the tipster has revealed the names of the two flagship phones from Xiaomi that may get unveiled on May 31. Here are the two screenshots that confirm Mi 8 and Mi 8 SE monikers.

The Mi 8 is expected to arrive in RAM variants such as 4 GB of RAM and 6 GB of RAM. Both the models are likely to come with 64 GB of storage. The handset may come in colors like gray, blue, gold and red.

The Mi 8 SE seems to be an advanced smartphone as it is likely to arrive in storage editions such as 64 GB, 128 GB and 256 GB. All the three storage models of the Mi 8 SE are likely to feature 6 GB of RAM. Its speculated color variants include black, blue, white and gold. Probably, this handset could be equipped with an advanced 3D facial recognition feature.

Read More: New Xiaomi Mi TV 4C, 4X and 4S Models Launched in China

The other image that has been shared by the tipster reveals that the company will be announcing the Mi Band 3 fitness tracker at Shenzhen next week. Xiaomi has already confirmed that it will be showcasing the MIUI 10 and a recent report has revealed that the company may also launch its Surge S2 SoC at the same event.

(source 1, 2)

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Xiaomi Mi 8 and MIUI 10 are the only products that are confirmed to get announced on May 31. Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun had recently said that the company would be unleashing a variety of new products at the upcoming event. Some of the Xiaomi fans have carefully examined the launch poster of the Mi 8 and have claimed that it includes some hidden clues on the devices that will be announced in the next week. Here is the modified launch poster of Mi 8 that shows the different products hidden in it.

There are three red-colored circles in the above image. Each one of them features a smartphone. According to ITHome, it is now being speculated that the Chinese manufacturer may debut three smartphones namely Xiaomi Mi 8, Mi 8 Plus and Mi 7 at the forthcoming Shenzhen event.

The black circle below the huge-sized number 8 seems to be hinting the arrival of Mi Band 3 fitness tracker. The green circle below could be showing the wireless charging pad that suggests that the upcoming flagship phones will be enabled with support for wireless charging. The number 8 has a circuit board inside it which indicates that the Chinese firm may announce Surge S2 SoC that was speculated to get unveiled at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018 in February.

Read More: New Xiaomi Mi TV 4C, 4X and 4S Models Launched in China

Earlier today, Xiaomi released a new teaser to hint that a new unlock feature would be available on the Mi 8. It is speculated that the new unlock feature could be 3D facial recognition or under-display fingerprint scanner. There are only 6 days remaining for the annual product launch event and Xiaomi is expected to release new teasers on daily basis until the launch event. Some of the speculated devices may get confirmed through the forthcoming teasers. Hence, it is recommended to digest the above report with a grain of salt.

(source)

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Today, Xiaomi teased a new product through microblogging platform Weibo. The upcoming product is speculated to be in the S-series given that the company has posted an image which has a big “S” drawn.

Apart from the “S” shaped ribbon in the posted image, there is no further information revealed. Based on the previous rumors and reports, the upcoming product announcement could be related to the Surge S2 SoC or the Redmi S2 smartphone. However, the image teaser is most likely for the Redmi S2.

The upcoming Redmi S2 appeared in a leaked video a few days ago from Czech Republic website dotekomanie.cz. The source says the phone is already on display at a Mi Store in the Czech Republic, suggesting that the company has entered a new market in Europe.

Earlier leaks related to the smartphone has revealed that the phone will come with a 5.99-inch display having 1440 x 720 pixels screen resolution. Under the hood, it will be powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor paired with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage.

The phone is expected to pack dual rear cameras – 12-megapixel primary lens and a 5-megapixel secondary lens. On the front side, there’ll a 16-megapixel snapper along with an LED flash for brighter selfies. It is also said to have 3,080mAh battery and will run MIUI 9 based on Android Oreo operating system out-of-the-box.

The Redmi S2’s leaked pricing information suggests that it will be priced VND 3,999,000, which roughly translates to $176. The pricing is in Vietnam Dong, suggesting that the phone will also be available in Vietnam.

Meanwhile, Xiaomi is also working on the launch of the successor of Surge S1, its first in-house chipset — Surge S2. According to rumors, the Surge S2 should be on par with Huawei’s Kirin 960, which is the chipset found on the Huawei P10 and Mate 9 series.

Read More: Xiaomi Mi 7 Leaked Launch Poster Reveals May 23 Unveil Date

Recent reports indicate that Xiaomi has increased orders at several Taiwanese manufacturers in the IT supply chain. Among these, there are TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company), Largan Precision, Inventec, and Foxconn. The Surge S2 processor has been mentioned in an alleged contract signed by the Chinese company with TSMC. Reports are suggesting that the SoC will be realized by TSMC with a 16nm production process.

(Source)

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In 2017, Xiaomi announced the first smartphone with its own processor: the Mi 6C with Surge S1 on board. Now, it seems that the company is working on the launch of its successor: Surge S2. The S1 is not a flagship-level chipset: it is a mid-range SoC which offers a similar level of performance to Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 and MediaTek Helio P20. On AnTuTu benchmarks, it gets a slightly higher score than its two main rivals. According to rumors, its successor should be on par with Huawei’s Kirin 960, which is the chipset found on the Huawei P10 and Mate 9 series (Honor 9 as well).

Fresh reports are suggesting that Xiaomi has increased orders at several Taiwanese manufacturers in the IT supply chain. Among these, there are TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company), Largan Precision, Inventec and Foxconn. The Surge S2 processor has been mentioned in an alleged contract signed by the Chinese company with TSMC, and this is what is making everyone think that the company is developing its next proprietary SoC. Reports are also suggesting that the SoC will be realized by TSMC with a 16 nm production process.

RELATED: Xiaomi Officially Teases The Mi Band 3!

It will allegedly be composed of four powerful Cortex A73 with a max frequency of 2.2 GHz and four less powerful Cortex A53 with a clock frequency of 1.8 GHz: so, it is expected to sport an octa-core design. The CPUs will supposedly be paired with a Mali G71 MP8 GPU. Even though Xiaomi Surge S2 will be a mid-range processor, it is expected to support UFS 2.1 storages and LPPDR4 RAM. The Surge S1 did not have so much success, but do note that the Xiaomi Mi 6c was the only handset released with this chipset.

Do you think its successor will be able to compete with Qualcomm and MediaTek latest SoCs just like Huawei’s Kirin line-up?

(via)

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Since the last month, the rumor mill has been gradually leaking information on the upcoming Xiaomi Mi 6X smartphone. Rumors have revealed that it would arriving with an 18:9 aspect ratio display and a vertically stacked dual rear cameras like the iPhone X. Fresh photos showing the front and rear sides of the of the alleged Xiaomi Mi 6X have appeared. The new images seem to confirm the features that have surfaced through the recent leaks.

It appears that the below images could belong to a prototype of Mi 6X. Compared to the Xiaomi Mi 5X, the Mi 6X seems to be sporting slimmer bezels at the top and bottom. This indicates that the elongated display of the phone may carry support for 18:9 aspect ratio. The smartphone is likely to feature 5.7-inch or 5.9-inch display that will support Full HD+ resolution.

The other image showing the rear side of the phone suggests that it will be coming with metal unibody design with matte finish. The back panel houses the fingerprint and at the left corner is the vertically arranged dual camera setup with the LED flash placed between the two snappers.

A leaked photo of a case for Mi 6X has revealed that the bottom side of the phone will be housing features like external speaker, USB-C port and 3.5mm audio jack. The top edge of the phone may feature an IR blast. The right edge of the phone features volume buttons and Power key.

Read More: Xiaomi MEE7S and MET7S Gets 3C Certification, Said To Be Redmi Note 5

A recent report has claimed that it could be powered by Xiaomi’s upcoming Surge S2 chipset that is expected to get unveiled at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018 in the next month. It is also speculated that the Xiaomi Mi 6X will be sold outside of China as Xiaomi Mi A2.

What’s your opinion on the above images? Share us your views by posting your comments below.

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In February 2017, Xiaomi had debuted the Mi 5C smartphone. What’s special about this smartphone is that it is powered by Xiaomi’s in-house chipset called Surge S1. The rumors that had surfaced in the latter half of 2017 had claimed that the company is working on the Surge S2, the second-generation edition of its chipset. Fresh leaks suggest that the Chinese manufacturer will launch the alleged Surge S2 chipset at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018 in the next month.

After the launch of the Surge S1 chipset, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun had claimed that the company will continue to develop more chipsets in future. It is now speculated that the Surge S2 will be a powerful chipset unlike the Surge S1 that had powered the mid-range Xiaomi Mi 5C. Rumors have it that the Surge S2 that is based on TSMC’s 16nm manufacturing processor features an octa-core processor. It reportedly features four cores of Cortex A73 that clocks at 2.2 GHz and four cores of Cortex A53 that processes at 1.8 GHz.

The other rumored features of the Surge S2 include Mali G71 MP8 graphics, UFS 2.1 storage and LPDDR4 RAM. Also, it does not carry support for CDMA network. These specifications suggest that the performance of the Surge S2 will be on par with Kirin 960 chipset by Huawei.

Read More: Xiaomi Mi 6X Render Suggesting 18:9 Display, Vertical Dual Camera Has Appeared

Previous rumors have claimed that the Surge S2 will be powering the Xiaomi Mi 6C smartphone. However, recent leaks suggest that the first phone to feature the Surge S2 could be the Xiaomi Mi 6X. It is speculated that this smartphone will be sold globally as Xiaomi Mi A2. Leaked information have suggested that the Mi 6X will be sporting a full screen design and it will be featuring a dual camera setup on its rear.

Will Xiaomi unveil the Surge S2 chipset at MWC 2018? Will it be seen first on Mi 6X? Let us know your views by posting your comments below.

(source)

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Recently, there were reports that Xiaomi was going to release the second generation of its in-house Surge S2 chip, with its mass production said to commence in Q3 2017 and would power the Mi 6C and Mi 6S. There is now a fresh rumour that Xiaomi Mi 6C making the rounds that the Xiaomi Mi 6C would be released in the fourth quarter of the year.

The Xiaomi Mi 6C is said to feature a design which includes a double-sided 2.5D curved glass design which gives it a similar look to the Mi 6’s four curved edge design. The screen ratio of the device is said to be higher than that of the Mi 6 but the shape is said to look like the Mi 5. In addition, the Xiaomi Mi 6C is also revealed as coming with a dual camera setup at the rear with the configuration given as a 12MP Sony IMX386 main CMOS sensor and a 5MP depth of field secondary shooter.

Read More: Nokia Partners With Xiaomi To Use Its Surge S1 Chip In Its Phone

As stated earlier, the Mi 6C is expected to be powered by the Surge S2 chip which could also end up being called Surge X1 chip. The processor is produced using the 16nmTSMC process and is configured as four Cortex-A73 and four Cortex-A53 cores in an octa-core arrangement. The large cores are capable of running at a clock frequency of 2.2GHz while the small cores have a maximum clock frequency of 1.8GHz. In addition, the chip includes a Mali G71MP8 GPU and supports UFS 2.1 flash memory and LPDDR4 RAM with the performance said to be in the same league with the Kirin 960 chip. Other features said to be on the Mi 6C include a 4GB RAM +64 GB storage version and another with 6GB RAM + 128GB storage and the price is tipped to be in the region of 1999 yuan and 2499 yuan respectively.

(source)

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In February, Xiaomi had introduced its in-house chipset named as Surge S1. It was introduced through the Xiaomi Mi 5c phone. The chipset was after more than two years of development. Fresh information that has appeared this morning states that Xiaomi is now working on its second-generation in-house chipset that is expected to arrive as Surge S2.

The Surge S1 was manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). It was built with 28nm manufacturing process. With few months of launching the Surge S1, the Chinese company has begun working on its successor. Rumors have it that the mass production of Surge S2 chips will begin soon, revealed a Taiwanese publication by citing Chinese media.

Read More: Xiaomi Mi Max 2 Review; The Best Big Budget Smartphone of 2017?

Xiaomi has conducted sampling of its upcoming Surge S2 chip. TSMC will be manufacturing the new chipset and it will be built with 16nm process technology.  Its mass production is expected to begin in the third quarter of this year. Since the Surge S1 powered the Xiaomi Mi 5c, speculations are rife that the upcoming Surge S2 would be present under the hood of Xiaomi Mi 6c and 6s. Both the smartphones are rumored to debut in the last quarter of 2017.

The Xiaomi Surge S1 is an octa-core processor that feature four Cortex A53 cores running at 2.2 GHz and another four Cortex A53 cores working at 1.4 GHz. It is coupled with Mali-T860 MP4 chipset and features Cat. 4 LTE modem. It supports LPDDR3 RAM and eMMC 5.0 storage. In terms of performance, it is not on par or better than the Snapdragon 625 chipset (built with 14nm process). Hence, there is a possibility that the Surge S2 could be as powerful as the Snapdragon 625 or 652 SoC. It seems that it will take some for Xiaomi to manufacture a higher-end chip that can power a flagship phone.

(source|via)

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