Xiaomi to launch new Snapdragon 730-based smartphone in India soon, could be Mi A3 with Android One

There seems to be no stopping Xiaomi. Soon after launching the budget Redmi Y3 and Redmi 7 (which came close on the heels of the Redmi Note 7 and Redmi Note 7 Pro), Xiaomi has started teasing its new and upcoming smartphone. Although the company does not mention a name, Xiaomi’s India head Manu Kumar Jain has taken to microblogging website Twitter to confirm the phone in question will pack a “Qualcomm Snapdragon 700-series processor announced just 2 weeks ago” - which in all probability will be either the Snapdragon 730 or Snapdragon 730G.  

Qualcomm unveiled the mid-tier Snapdragon 730 system-on-chip almost 2 weeks ago. As is the case with most recent mid-tier Qualcomm chips, the Snapdragon 730 also focuses on bringing enhanced AI capabilities to the masses – from cameras to all round performance. The Snapdragon 730, in addition, also focuses on bringing enhanced gaming performance to mid-range devices – just to reiterate the fact, Qualcomm also launched a binned version of the Snapdragon 730 alongside. The graphics-centric chip is called the Snapdragon 730G.  

The Snapdragon 730 is successor to the Snapdragon 710 (seen inside the Realme 3 Pro). Built on an 8nm process, the Snapdragon 730 boasts of an 8-core CPU - two 'big' Kryo 470 cores based on ARM Cortex-A76 clocked at 2.2 GHz and six 'small' power-efficient cores based on Cortex-A55 clocked at 1.8GHz. The SoC has an Adreno 618 GPU. 

Also tagging along is the Hexagon 688 DSP and Spectra 350 ‘computer vision’ ISP (bringing support for up to 36MP single main camera or 22MP dual setup and 960fps 720p slo-mo video capture and 4K HDR video portrait mode), alongside the X15 LTE modem, and support for the Wi-Fi 6 standard. 

The gaming-focused Snapdragon 730G meanwhile has a higher clocked GPU promising up to 15 per cent faster graphics over the vanilla Snapdragon 730. 

Xiaomi also does not mention a tentative timeline of launch, but Qualcomm has confirmed that mid-tier mobile devices powered by the new Snapdragon 700-series processor(s) will be available from the middle of this year – so a late May-early June timeline of launch can’t be ruled out. 

As for the phone in question, rumour has it that Xiaomi is secretly working on the Mi A3 with a 4,000mAh battery and triple rear cameras – like the Mi A2, the Mi A3 will also likely be an Android One device. 

Also Read:  Xiaomi Redmi Y3, Redmi 7 First Look: Bringing The Budget Smartphone Segment Alive