Xiaomi is not attending Mobile World Congress this year, but it has mastered the trick to be in the news at the right time. The company has today announced its very first custom chip and the first smartphone to be powered by it.
The Mi 5c is an upgraded model of the Mi 5 smartphone that was launched at last year’s Mobile World Congress. As we said, this is the first smartphone to be powered by Xiaomi’s Surge S1 processor.
The Surge S1 is an octa-core 64-bit processor that can be clocked up to 2.2 GHz. Xiaomi claims it is 40 percent more power efficient, while vouching for its crystal clear call quality as well. The chip can also improve photos with better low light scene shooting and increased light sensitivity.
Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun said in a statement:
For Xiaomi, the move is an essential next step in our development. In order to deliver on our promise to make innovation available to everyone, we need to master the core technologies of our industry and tightly integrate the development of our hardware with our software, helping us to make even better smartphones that will consistently surprise the industry and delight consumers.
The Mi 5c, on the other hand, comes with a 5.15-inch Full HD display with 550-nit brightness, backlit controls, and reading mode. The Surge S1 has four quad-core A53 clocked at 2.2GHz and four quad-core A53 clocked at 1.4GHz. It has 3GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage.
On the photography front, it comes with a 12-megapixel primary sensor with 1.25nm pixels and single frame HDR. Also, Surge’s ISP algorithm is expected to increase light sensitivity while preserving the details even in low light. The secondary camera on the phone is an 8-megapixel sensor.
The smartphone is backed by a 2860mAh battery which also supports 9V 2A fast charging. On the connectivity front, Xiaomi Mi 5c supports VoLTE HD calls, along with usual set of connectivity options, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS.
The device also includes a fingerprint sensor on the front. The Xiaomi Mi 5c is priced at RMB 1,499 (approx. Rs 14,555) in China.
Xiaomi is only the fourth phone-maker to design its own processor, after Samsung, Apple and Huawei. But the launch device is underwhelming. It is said that Xiaomi’s upcoming flagship smartphone Mi6 will be powered by their own processor, but the company hasn’t revealed anything as of yet.
