It’s been a while since the Mi 6 came out earlier this year, making this the perfect time for Xiaomi’s next flagship phone to hit the rumor mills. Presumably called the Mi 7, a new Weibo-sourced report claims that the handset will run on a Snapdragon 845 processor.
This in itself isn’t that surprising, since flagship Android phones typically carry the latest and greatest Qualcomm has to offer. What is a bit more interesting is the timing, since the tipster claims that the Mi 7 will get launched in Q1 of 2018 which translates to anywhere between January and March 2018.
The Mi 6 came out in April, so the Mi 7 will be arriving a bit early if the rumor pans out. Moreover, it would become one of the first handsets to carry the Snapdragon 845 SoC. Samsung is widely assumed to have snatched up the first batch for its own Galaxy S9, but perhaps Xiaomi has managed to circumvent this somehow.
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Intriguingly, it seems Xiaomi is doing business with Samsung for the Mi 7. It apparently wants to switch to a 6-inch AMOLED panel, a significant upgrade from the Mi 6’s LCD screen. The South Korean company is the biggest player in the OLED business, so it makes sense for the Chinese major to approach it.
Other rumored specs include either 6GB or 8GB of RAM. The former is easy to accept since the Mi 6 already features 6GB of RAM. The latter would make the Mi 7 the first Xiaomi offering with 8GB of RAM. Combined with the Snapdragon 845 SoC, the handset may well turn out to be a processing powerhouse.