Will Xiaomi Launch the First Snapdragon 636 Phone in 2018?

Even before the launch, we know that the Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus will be the cheapest full-screen smartphone that also has parts from a huge brand name. The phone has already been leaked a few times and it will have some great features included.

There are going to be some great new features added to this phone. But the main question of this article isn’t about the phone itself. This is about the new Snapdragon chip from Qualcomm and if this new Redmi 5 model will include it.

What We Know

Currently, the phone is expected to be priced somewhere around the low or mid-range category. However, it will still have a bezel-less screen. While we know the phone itself will be released in 2018, we aren’t entirely sure if it really will include this new Snapdragon chip. The release of this new chip might not coincide with the release date of the phone.

With that being said, let’s take a look at what Qualcomm has said about this new chip and when it will be released.

Snapdragon Chip Configuration

For some quick information of this new chip, it will include:

• A 14nm process node
• 8 Kyro 260 cores architecture
• Adreno 509 GPU; improves GPU performance by 10%
• Should provide a 40% improved CPU performance
• X12 baseband; download speed of 600Mbps
• 14-bit Spectra 160 to support a 24MP camera
• Full-screen capability

Qualcomm

Qualcomm announced that the Snapdragon 636 will be released to replace SoCs, like the Snapdragon 660 and 630. It will be used as the successor of any models that used these processors before. However, this replacement is expected to be released in the second quarter of 2018, between April and June.

Race to Have Chip First

Because of not only the good pricing but the capabilities of this new chip, each manufacturer will be in a race to have a phone that includes this chip first. Due to this, it’s a wonder who will have a phone released with this chip first. With so many large smartphone manufacturers out there, with Xiaomi being one of the many, it’s hard to say who will manage to have their new phone being released first with this new chip.

But the real question here is: Will Xiaomi beat out the competition and release its new model of phone first? Let’s take a look at the shipping date for the chip.

Announcements

Qualcomm already announced that the shipping of the chip will begin this upcoming November. This means that the first devices to have this new chip will be released in the second quarter of 2018.

Due to this release date, it appears that Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus will not have this chip included within it. Another model is likely to have it in time, but the Redmi 5 is going to released early into 2018. So, it seems Xiaomi is currently not going to be releasing the first phone with this new chip.