This morning, Xiaomi announced the 18 Pro series in China. Hours later, I was able to attend a session here at Snapdragon Summit to be briefed on the new devices. Interestingly, the Xiaomi 18 Pro uses the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6, while the Xiaomi 18 Pro Max uses the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6. That made me scratch my head a bit; these are both “premium” devices — why not use the same chip?
When asked about this, Xiaomi told Android Headlines that the main reason is the size. The 18 Pro Max is larger and can accommodate the larger Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6, with more space to cool it. Don’t forget, the ‘Extreme’ model is actually physically larger than the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6. The main reason for this is the placement of the memory. Instead of being directly on top of the SoC, it’s offset from it. This allows for better cooling but also makes the package physically larger.
Xiaomi did tell us that both phones will have incredible battery life; that’s something I think we’re going to see a lot this generation. As 2nm does bring some really incredible battery savings to phones, as we’ve already seen with the iPhone 18 Pro and will soon see with the vivo X500 Pro series, OPPO Find X10 Pro Max, and other 2nm devices.
Qualcomm told us to expect this with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6
In the different Q&A sessions I sat in on so far this week at Snapdragon Summit, Qualcomm has told us that we will see many brands using both chips in the same series, and Xiaomi is doing just that. It’s a major reason why Qualcomm decided to go with this Dual 8 Elite strategy this year.
The two chips might sound the same, but they very much are not. Sure, they’re both 2nm TSMC-manufactured chips, but the ‘Extreme’ version is more capable; it can run cooler and offers much more AI capacity. Which is something that smartphone makers are interested in.
The post Here’s Why the Xiaomi 18 Pro Max Gets the Extreme Chip While the Pro Doesn’t appeared first on Android Headlines.
