Xiaomi and OPPO may soon challenge Qualcomm with their own 5G phone chips

Google is also expected to introduce its first in-house developed SoC later this year.

What you need to know

• A new report claims Xiaomi and OPPO are working on their own custom 5G smartphone chipsets.
• The chipsets will reportedly be launched by the end of this year or early next year.
• Fabless chipmaker Unisoc is also said to be developing an in-house 5G chipset.

Last week, a report claimed that the upcoming Pixel 6 will be powered by Google's own custom SoC, which it is apparently developing in partnership with Samsung. If a new report from DigiTimes is to be believed, Google isn't the only brand that could ditch Qualcomm for its own mobile chipset this year.

Xiaomi and OPPO are said to be developing their own sub-6GHz 5G chipsets, which could be introduced between late 2021 and early 2022. Citing industry sources in Taiwan, the report claims fabless chipmaker Unisoc also plans to take on Qualcomm and MediaTek with its own lineup of 5G mobile chips.

Xiaomi already has some experience with making a smartphone chipset. As some of you may remember, the company introduced the Surge S1 in 2017, which was used in the Mi 5C — one of its best cheap Android phones of the year. It also announced its custom image signal processor (ISP), the Surge C1, at its mega launch event last month.

While OPPO hasn't made a custom chip yet, a report out of China had claimed last year that it was working together with its sister brands Realme and OnePlus on a "Mariana Plan" to develop its own processor.

Developing their own chips should allow OPPO and Xiaomi to reduce their reliance on Qualcomm and MediaTek. However, you shouldn't expect them to move away from the two leading chipmakers entirely anytime soon.