Xiaomi 12 could be the first phone powered by Snapdragon 898
After Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 888, this marked the flagship chip that would be powering all of our flagship devices over the course of 2021. With the year rapidly approaching its end, it’s time to start gearing up for the next wave of flagship phones powered by the next Qualcomm chip. It has not been announced just yet, but the Snapdragon 898 will likely be the name for Qualcomm’s next flagship processor. And thanks to a couple of leaks, we have a better idea of at least two smartphone makers that will be first in line.
Near the end of last year, Xiaomi was the first OEM to release a flagship powered by the Snapdragon 888 with the Xiaomi Mi 11 series. According to Digital Chat Station (via The Mobile Hunt), Xiaomi will again be the first to make use of the Snapdragon 898, as it will likely be powering the Xiaomi 12. But it also seems that Motorola could be gearing up to re-enter the flagship space with an unnamed device set to be unveiled before the end of the year.
Snapdragon898 Geekbench5
1200/3900— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) November 5, 2021
Around the same time as that information was revealed, another leak came courtesy of IceUniverse, who shared the single and multi-core Geekbench scores for the Snapdragon 898. With a 1200 single-core score, and a 3900 multi-core score, Qualcomm’s next flagship is set to be about 15% faster than the previous SD888. But the performance gains could be even higher, as these tests likely came using hardware that is not finished just yet.
If those scores are real, then it would place the Snapdragon 898 leaps and bounds above any other device on the market. Looking at the current Geekbench leader boards, the Surface Duo 2 offers the highest single and multi-core scores, coming in at 1051 and 3313, respectively.
As it stands, Qualcomm does not currently have an event or announcement publicly scheduled, but going off of recent years, the SD898 could be announced in just a few weeks. And it wouldn’t come as a surprise if Xiaomi is a launch partner for the device.