Snapdragon 8 Gen 1: These smartphones will get the new SoC first

It's a near-tradition that every time Qualcomm holds its annual Tech Summit conference during which it introduces its new mobile processor, some "partner" Android manufacturers race to announce that their next flagship will be the first to feature the SoC.

So, just like last year, it's Xiaomi who is claiming that the Xiaomi 12 will be the first Android smartphone powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen1 although no launch date has been announced for its flagship (expected by December in China). Oppo followed Xiaomi's announcement very closely by promising that its next flagship smartphone will also feature Qualcomm's latest SoC. Again, no release date is expected for the potential Oppo Find X4 Pro.

"We are committed to bringing consumers high-end 5G smartphones, such as the Find X3 series, so we are excited about the launch of the Snapdragon 8 mobile platform," said Scott Zhang, Oppo's vice president of overseas sales. 

Honor, OnePlus, Realme and others will obviously follow suit... but not Samsung?

As you can imagine, you shouldn't stop at these purely marketing announcements that consist in shouting "dibs" when you don't even have a release date planned for your smartphone. In any case, like every year for the past several years, almost every high-end Android smartphone will feature the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 in 2022.

• Also read: Flagship SoC comparison: Snapdragon 888 vs Exynos 2100 vs Kirin 9000 vs Dimensity 1200 vs Apple A1

Qualcomm has actually released a list of brands that have signed on to launch a device powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and it includes Black Shark, Honor, iQOO, Motorola, Nubia, OnePlus, Oppo, Realme, Redmi, Sharp, Sony, Vivo, Xiaomi, and ZTE. Xiaomi seems to be the manufacturer where the Qualcomm chip integration seems to be the most advanced in terms of timing and boasted a little video preview of one of its production lines to show that mass manufacturing of the Xiaomi 12 with Snapdragon 8 Gen1 has already begun.

Take a sneak peek of the most potent @Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset that will power our upcoming #Xiaomi12Series! #InnovationForEveryone pic.twitter.com/YrNqM8beMN

— Xiaomi (@Xiaomi) December 1, 2021

Interestingly, Samsung is not listed by Qualcomm, while the South Korean giant's upcoming Galaxy S22 is expected to feature the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, at least in some regions.