Xiaomi has unveiled its own processor, the much publicised Surge S1. Surge S1 is the first SoC (system-on-chip) Xiaomi has built with its owned company – Pinecone Electronics.
A SoC incorporates a CPU, GPU, memory, USB controller, power management circuits, and wireless radios into a single silicon chip.
Xiaomi is the fourth player to have its own processor after Samsung with its “Exynos”, Apple with its “A” series, and Huawei with its own “Kirin” processor.
According to Xiaomi chief executive Lei Jun; “The ability to create its own chipsets is the pinnacle achievement for any smartphone company.”
“For Xiaomi, the move is an essential next step in our development. In order to deliver on our promise to make innovation available to everyone, we need to master the core technologies of our industry and tightly integrate the development of our hardware with our software, helping us to make even better smartphones that will consistently surprise the industry and delight consumers.”
The Surge S1 uses a octa-core ARM Cortex A53 processor, incorporating four 2.2GHz cores and four 1.4GHz cores, which the company said achieves “a balance between performance and power efficiency.” Also included is an integrated Mali T-860 MP4 GPU, which will provide “superb” graphics performance in gaming and support for 4K videos, and a 32-bit DSP supporting VoLTE and 16kHz sampling to deliver high-quality audio and voice calls.
The Surge S1 is positioned as a competitor to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 625, and MediaTek’s P20 and P10.
The company also used this opportunity to launch the first smartphone using this Surge S1 processor – the Xiaomi Mi 5C.
The Xiaomi Mi 5C sports a 5.15” display, a 12 MP main camera and a 8 MP front camera. It comes with Android 7.1 Nougat and MIUI out of the box and powered by octa-core Surge S1. Although having a built-in 2560mAh battery, the Mi 5c provides a full day battery life. Not to mention its 9V/2A charging spec, providing faster and safer charging!
It comes in 3 colour variants – Rose Gold, Gold and Black.
