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Why Qualcomm and MediaTek will make 2022 a memorable year for smartphone chipsets
And, hopefully, a good one for consumers
Next year looks like it might be very exciting — when it comes to smartphones, anyway. The traditional logic would tell you that Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset will set the standard for flagship Android phones in 2022. But, for the first time in years, that’s not guaranteed. MediaTek is also ready with its own new big-boy chip in the Dimensity 9000, Google’s gone custom, Samsung’s bringing AMD GPUs to its in-house SoCs, and even OPPO is rumored to be working on its own SoC. It’s a smartphone chipset showdown. But will it be a silicon bloodbath, a boring and easy victory for the encumbent, or can customers expect something even better (if less dramatic)? There’s already evidence to be excited in the latest benchmarks.
There's a new trend emerging from the lessons that smartphone companies have learned over the past few years. In an attempt to have greater control over every step of the phone-making process, they're looking to develop their own chips. Only a day after Google launched the Pixel 6 series with its new Tensor SoC, we're hearing that Oppo is also embarking on a similar journey.
Evidence mounts that 2021 will be the year Google takes on Apple's Bionic processors
Whitechapel and GS101 references spotted in an AOSP comment for a 'P21' device
For over a year, it's been rumored that Google was working on a custom smartphone chip with Samsung, and last month news surfaced that it would land in an upcoming Pixel phone, presumed to be the Pixel 6. Another small tidbit has surfaced recently that further corroborates Whitechapel-powered hardware is under development and tied to upcoming Google hardware.
How Google's secretive smartphone chip might stack up against Apple and Qualcomm
Analysts weigh in on Whitechapel leaks so far
News that Google's long-awaited custom-made chipset "Whitechapel" may show up in the Pixel 6 still has us excited. It's been so long since we've had something other than a Snapdragon, MediaTek, or Exynos in a smartphone, but there are are many questions over what we can and should expect from Google's first custom smartphone system-on-a-chip. Diving into last year's leaked specs and speaking to some analysts, we do have a few expectations before the Pixel 6 lands in our hands.