The second-generation flagship Qualcomm chip would be caught along with one of the first products that should make use of it. A fairly interesting rumor therefore, anticipates two novelties in one fell swoop: Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and Xiaomi 13 Pro. The former is being talked more and more often lately, the last time last week when the informant Digital Chat Station anticipated a novelty that would be surprising: Qualcomm could present two variants of its best chip already at launch.
In recent years, the American company has on several occasions declined its best chip in two variants, but this has happened after some time in a sort of mid-cycle update. It happened with Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, presented at the end of 2021 and then revised in Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 a few months ago. Now Qualcomm would change strategy, firing all the cartridges immediately. Of the two variants that would arrive at launch, Xiaomi 13 Pro should have the less powerful one.
SOMETHING WITH THE SAME ‘SHOWCASE’ AS THE PREVIOUS YEAR?
The point is that according to Digital Chat Station the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 “base” would have about 3.2 GHz that is the frequency of 8+ Gen 1, while the indiscretion of Xiaomi Update Philippines on Twitter showed what would be there information screen of a pre-production Xiaomi 13 Pro with a 3 GHz Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, the same frequency as the first generation chip. If so, Qualcomm would arrive on the market in a few weeks with a second generation chip with the same frequency as the first.
GHz for a processor is a bit like megapixels for a camera: they do not say everything, but the public considers them an indicative measure of performance. They are a showcase, and arriving with the same product in the showcase of the previous year would expose the company to some risk in terms of the perception of the end user. Qualcomm may have preferred to intervene on the aspects of Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 that made it a chip with an energy management that can be improved, but it will have to manage the choice well in terms of communication because it is on the high end the public expects the frequency to go up from one generation to the next.
This is the alleged Xiaomi 13 Pro engineering unit.
It shows a curved OLED panel, 12GB RAM, MIUI 14 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 running at 3.0GHz.
Another reading is that Qualcomm is testing the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 at different clock speeds, in order to evaluate the best possible compromise in the field. The hypothesis holds because 200 MHz of difference between the “alleged” (the 3.2 GHz of Digital Chat Station) and the “real” (the 3 GHz of this rumor) are there, it takes a little less if you look at the times (Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 should arrive shortly, ahead of its predecessor).
THE RUMOR INFO ON XIAOMI 13 PRO
Finally, quick excursus by points on the Xiaomi 13 Pro surprised with Qualcomm’s first chip:
- curved OLED display at the edges
- 12 GB of RAM (presumably LPDDR5) + 3 virtual GB
- MIUI 14 user interface based on Android 13.
