The Xiaomi Mi 10 smartphone will be one of the first to use Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 865 processors, according to the company’s founder, Bin Lin, who talked about the unofficial phone on stage at the chip’s big reveal. Lin was just one of the special guests at Qualcomm’s lavish Tech Summit, currently underway in Hawaii, and additionally confirmed the Mi 10 would support dual-mode 5G.
The Mi 10 will be the sequel to the Xiaomi Mi 9, one of the first to use the Snapdragon 855 processor when it was released in late March last year. The reasonably priced superphone was a revelation in terms of performance, and it makes us very excited for the Mi 10, which we now know will have the Snapdragon 865 and 5G.
While Xiaomi was the most forthright about its plans for the Snapdragon 865 chip, several other phone makers committed to using the new processor. Oppo, a rising star in the international phone world, will bring out a 5G phone with the Snapdragon 865 during the first three months of 2020, while Motorola owner Motorola will also have 5G phones using both the Snapdragon 865 and the 765 too. However, it stayed quiet on a time frame.
Finally, HMD Global called 5G its, “highest priority,” in 2020 and will use the Snapdragon 765 processor in at least one Nokia phone over the coming year, with the intention of making a 5G experience more accessible to everyone. This is not the first time we’ve heard about Nokia’s 5G plans. Chief product officer Juho Sarvikas told Digital Trends earlier this year about its intention to release a 5G phone in 2020 that costs half of the current crop of models. This could mean as little as $500 or $600.
Returning to the Xiaomi Mi 10, Bin Lin did not talk about the rest of the specification or design of the phone, but if we link it to other comments from Xiaomi regarding its strategy for 2020, it may be just one of 10 different 5G phones the company plans to release. Stating concern over the sales potential of 4G-only phones next year, Xiaomi’s CEO Lei Jun said the firm will release 10 5G phones in 2020. His statement came at the same time China officially launched its 5G network, highlighting the importance of the new technology for Xiaomi, as it battles against local competition from Huawei, Oppo, and others.
