Xiaomi 18 series will launch with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 chip
Qualcomm’s annual Snapdragon Summit takes place from September 22nd to 24th. There, the two new next-generation Snapdragon 8 Elite chips will be officially unveiled – the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and the Gen 6 Pro. Several manufacturers – including Xiaomi, vivo, and Oppo – plan to present their flagship series in the same month. Rumors suggest that the Xiaomi 18 series will be the first to launch.
The series will consist of three models. The Xiaomi 18 Pro Max will be equipped with two 200MP cameras, a main camera with a 1/1.28-inch LOFIC sensor. The Pro model will offer a larger display on the back and possibly a privacy display feature. The base model will be slightly larger, with a 6.4-inch display and a 7,200mAh battery.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 chipset and the new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro are manufactured using a 2nm process. Whether Samsung or TSMC is handling the manufacturing is still unclear. The chipsets feature next-generation Oryon CPU cores in a 2+3+3 configuration. The regular Elite chip is equipped with an Adreno 845 GPU with 12 MB of on-chip graphics memory. It also has 6 MB of last-level cache (LLC). The Pro chipset is expected to feature an Adreno 850 with 18 MB of graphics memory and 8 MB of LLC. A Snapdragon 8 Gen 6 without the Elite designation is also in development, as was the case last year with the 8 Elite Gen 5 and the 8 Gen 5.
Only the Xiaomi 18 Pro Max gets the expensive Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro
The reason for the three-tiered structure is simple: price. Initial reports put the price of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro at a hefty $300. Therefore, only the Xiaomi 18 Pro Max will be equipped with the Elite Pro, and possibly later the Xiaomi 18 Ultra as well, should Xiaomi decide against its own Xring chip. The other two Xiaomi phones will instead receive the standard Elite chip.
The three smartphones will not be released simultaneously. According to reports, the Xiaomi 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max will be released in September and will be the first smartphones to feature the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 processor. The smaller base model will launch in October.
Incidentally, the Xiaomi 17 models were also the first smartphone series with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor last year.
