The first Snapdragon 898 phone could arrive from Xiaomi

Xiaomi may be the first in line to launch a Snapdragon 898-powered smartphone, according to a new report.

Qualcomm is expected to release its next flagship chipset – the Snapdragon 898 – very soon, and now we’re hearing rumors about which manufacturers are busy designing phones for it.

The digital chat station Weibo reports that Xiaomi will get to it first, followed by Motorola with its phone, which is due to arrive by the end of the year (via TheMobileHut).

While Digital Chat Station did not reveal the names of any of the phones, we know the Xiaomi 12 is expected until 2021, so there is a good chance that we will see the launch of a phone with Snapdragon 898 inside.

While it’s no surprise that Xiaomi came out on top – the Chinese company eventually launched the first phone based on its predecessor, the Snapdragon 888 – it’s interesting to hear that Motorola is second in line for this chip with a phone at the ready.

So what do we know about the Snapdragon 898 so far?

Earlier this week, Digital Chat Station shared a photo of the Snapdragon SM8450 processor on Weibo (via SparrowNews). The codename has become associated with the Snapdragon 898.

As per the image, the chipset will have one 3.0 GHz mega-core, three 2.5 GHz large cores and four 1.79 GHz small cores. The chip will also include an Adreno 730 GPU.

It has been speculated that the phone in the photo is actually the Xiaomi 12, which would make sense if Xiaomi launches a Snapdragon 898-powered phone in the near future.

https://twitter.com/UniverseIce/status/1456529297317847056?s=20

Meanwhile, Ice Universe recently shared its Geekbench 5 benchmark results for the chipset, which are 15% higher than the Snapdragon 888 and 5% higher than the 888 Plus (via GSMArena).