Xiaomi announces XRING 01, its in house smartphone chip that aims to take on the giants

After years of speculation and a flurry of leaks, Xiaomi has finally pulled the curtain back, sort of, on its long-rumoured self-developed smartphone chipset. Officially named the XRING 01, the company’s first in-house SoC since the Surge S1 in 2017 is set to debut later this month.

Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun made the announcement on his Weibo handle, confirming a May launch window that aligns neatly with recent whispers in the tech rumour mill.

What makes Xiaomi's XRING 01 special?

Details are still under wraps, but leaks paint a promising picture. Built on TSMC’s 4nm process, XRING 01 reportedly sports a 1+3+4 CPU layout, which includes, a prime core clocked at 3.2GHz, three performance cores at 2.5GHz, and four efficiency cores humming along at 2.0GHz.

While the specific cores remain a mystery, and may still change before launch, the architecture signals serious ambition. According to Digital Chat Station, the chip is expected to deliver performance on par with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, though not quite touching the heights of the Snapdragon 8 Elite or Dimensity 9400.

Still, let’s not understate it, XRING 01 is more than a silicon slab. With this move, Xiaomi joins the likes of Apple in the rare club of smartphone makers with vertically integrated chip design. That means tighter control over hardware and software, which in turn could unlock meaningful gains in device performance, power efficiency, and long-term support.

With this launch, Xiaomi is going to focus on futureproofing. By designing its own chip, Xiaomi can fine-tune everything from thermal output to AI processing, all while steering clear of supply chain bottlenecks.

If XRING 01 delivers even close to expectations, it could mark the start of a new era for the company, and a serious flex in the ongoing Android arms race. We have had bigger brands trying to fly with their wings spread wide, however, their journeys weren’t that easy, so it will be interesting to see how Xiaomi fares in this endeavour.