Xiaomi eyes a future beyond Qualcomm with its in-house Xring O1 chip

Xiaomi has taken a bold step forward in the ongoing global chipset race. With the launch of the Xring O1, its first flagship in-house processor, the company is no longer content to sit behind Qualcomm and MediaTek – it wants to stand shoulder to shoulder with them.

Built using an advanced second-generation 3nm process, the Xring O1 is designed to compete directly with the Snapdragon 8 Elite, Dimensity 9400, and Apple's latest A18 Pro chips. It features a unique 10-core CPU setup – more than any rival currently offers.

Two high-performance Cortex-X925 cores run at 3.9GHz, with six mid-range and two efficiency cores supporting them. The graphics unit, a 16-core Immortalis-G925, mirrors what MediaTek offers in its top-tier chips.

Technical specifications only tell part of the story. Xiaomi claims an AnTuTu benchmark score above three million – a figure that puts the Xring O1 among the elite. More importantly, it promises high power efficiency, something crucial for both performance and battery life.

This marks Xiaomi's first serious attempt to challenge the dominance of Qualcomm and MediaTek in the flagship Android space. The chip also significantly outpaces Samsung's Exynos line in both performance and energy use, at least on paper.

The Xring O1 debuts inside Xiaomi's new 15S Pro smartphone – a refreshed version of last year's 15 Pro, now with a carbon fibre finish and a switch from Qualcomm's silicon to Xiaomi's own. It also powers the Pad 7 Ultra, a premium 14-inch OLED tablet with a large battery and ultra-slim design.