- Xiaomi and Oppo are reportedly preparing to announce custom 5G chips.
- Their respective internal sub 6 GHz 5 G SoCs could hit the market between late 2021 and early 2022.
Xiaomi and Oppo appear ready to face Qualcomm and MediaTek by developing their own 5G smartphone SoCs.
According to Digitimes The two Chinese vendors will introduce their own internal sub-6 GHz 5G chips between late 2021 and early 2022. Shanghai-based fabless chip maker Unisoc will work with the two companies to develop its own smartphone processors.
The news comes from China's increasing investment in semiconductor space. The country has stepped up its efforts to manufacture chips locally so that it does not have to rely on foreign chipmakers.
The biggest realization came in the past two years when Huawei lost its ability to source Kirin chipsets from TSMC due to US-imposed restrictions. The country does not allow the sale of components to Huawei that are manufactured using US technology. Such harsh consequences have also caused other Chinese smartphone gamers to deviate from a similar fate if US-China relations continue to sour.
This is not the first time that Chinese providers have entered the chip game. It has previously been reported that Oppo has a so-called "Mariana Plan" to manufacture its own chipsets, which is reportedly being led by a former Qualcomm executive. OnePlus and Realme, Oppo's sister companies, have apparently also joined the custom chip initiative.
Xiaomi recently announced its first proprietary Image Signal Processing (ISP) chip, the Surge C1, which shows that it is capable of developing independent mobile chips. If the company launches a full-fledged 5G mobile SoC anytime soon, it will be the second attempt at making a phone chip after the Surge S1 chip released in 2017.
Custom chips also ensure that phone manufacturers can better optimize their devices for things like power consumption and overall performance. However, don't expect them to leave out chips from Qualcomm and MediaTek entirely.
Chinese companies are now working on internal chips. Google is also rumored to be making a custom smartphone silicon for the Pixel 6. More information on what to expect from it can be found here.