Very few smartphone manufacturers use their own processors in their smartphones. Huawei has its HiSilicon chipsets, Apple has its A-series of system-on-chips (SoCs) and Samsung manufactures their Exynos SoCs. While Xiaomi may have snubbed the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year, they still had a pretty big announcement to make, their own SoC, the Surge S1.
The Surge S1 is the first of two “Pinecone” CPUs the company has planned. Designed as a mid-tier chipset, Xiaomi is pitting it directly against Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 625, and MediaTek’s P20 and P10.
In a presentation shown at a press conference, Xiaomi claims that the Surge S1 has its respective competition beat in an Antutu benchmark.
Meanwhile, the Surge S1 also employs the quad-core Mali-T860 as its GPU, which also beat its competition.
However, when it came to processing power, it fell behind the Mediatek P20.
The S1 is an octa-core 64-bit processor (4xA53 cores 2.2GHz + 4xA53 cores) that runs up to 2.2GHz at max frequency. It also includes a 32-bit high-performance DSP for better voice processing for calls, and also dual microphones for noise reduction so your voice can be clearly heard. The 14-bit dual ISP enhances image processing capabilities and the Surge ISP algorithm improves camera light sensitivity by up to 150% with the dual noise reduction algorithm also preserving detail in low light. Having an upgradable baseband means having VoLTE definition voice call and more secure against fraudulent base stations.
The second chipset to come under the Pinecone family will be the V970, which will be built around the more efficient 10nm process; the Surge S1 operates under the 28nm process. Both chipsets will be built by Beijing Pinecone Electronics, a company Xiaomi owns.
The first smartphone to use the Surge S1 will be the Xiaomi Mi 5c, an updated model of the Xiaomi Mi 5 that was launched at last year’s MWC, but you can expect it to be rolled out to other upcoming Xiaomi smartphones.
