Towards the close of 2021, we had reported a tussle between Xiaomi and Motorola to launch handsets with Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset. If one were to believe latest leaks, the two brands are testing an upgraded chip now.
Leaks from two different sources suggest that the brands are testing an upcoming flagship device each with a chip codenamed SM8475. This might be an overclocked version of Qualcomm's flagship SoC that arrived late in 2021 and is powering flagship handsets early in 2022.
Leaker Digital Chat Station shared a post on Weibo claiming that a derivative of the Xiaomi 12 Pro could be in the works with model number 'L2S' that could feature this chipset. In parallel, tipster Roland Quandt tweeted about the Motorola's Frontier 22 specification that also quoted the same chipset model number. The Weibo post was shared in a report by GizmoChina.
The report said the device with model name L2S was being tested with the upcoming chipset and claimed that a launch could happen in the coming months. The device is being perceived as a derivative because its model number L2S gets an extra 'S' over Xiaomi 12 Pro's model number that happens to be 'L2'.
The leaker suggests that the model number could only indicate a derivative of the Xiaomi 12 Pro, which along with the Xiaomi 12 is speculated to launch towards end-February or early March across more geographies. MySmartPrice had collaborated with the leaker to also suggest an India launch around the same time.
As for Motorola's upcoming flagship, German website TechnikNews reported that the handset will be powered by the Snapdragon chipset with codename SM8475. In fact, leakers also revealed that detailed specs that include 125W of fast-charging, a 144Hz screen refresh rate as well as a mammoth 200MP primary shooter.
Its about two 4nm processes of chip making
For the moment, there are no further details about the L2S available, barring the SoC getting an upgrade over the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, which was codenamed SM8450. It was among the first to use Samsung’s 4nm manufacturing process that is now facing the heat from other chipsets TMSC’s 4nm process.
The upgraded version of the current Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset with the SM8475 model number could be created using TSMC's 4nm process, indicating an improved performance. There were reports of the current flagship facing overheating issues as well as throttling of power that caused some low Geekbench scores.
Of course, most of the existing information around these devices in the realm of leaks and rumors. So, it makes sense to wait a bit before adding yet another handset to the list of 12 handsets from Xiaomi that we expect in 2022.
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