Qualcomm Snapdragon 875 is rumored as the next flagship chip, which will be a significant upgrade from Snapdragon 865 – but this upgrade is going to come for a price. According to latest rumors, the faster and more energy-efficient 5nm chipset will be around a $100 costlier than the current Snapdragon 865, which means the Android flagships powered by the Snapdragon 875 will be more expensive – and you thought smartphones with SD865 under the hood were costly.
Qualcomm enjoys a sort of monopoly in the chip market. There is very little direct competition, which has left a great deal of OEMs to stick with Snapdragon processors powering their flagships. Next-gen Exynos and MediaTek Dimensity series do present some competition, but they do not make the kind of impact needed to oust Qualcomm as the uncrowned chipset king.
A recent order document signed by Xiaomi revealed the price of Snapdragon 875 chip at $250. This is surprising because Snapdragon 865 chip is available in China for about $150-$160 – a direct bump of $100 for manufacturers’ means, the flagship with the chip will at least be as much expensive; that if OEMs don’t wish to pass on some additional burden to the end-users.
Interestingly, this cost of $250 is for the entire package, which would include an integrated Snapdragon X60 5G modem. Integration of 5G modem should make the costing of the SoC more competitive but that doesn’t seem to be the case if the rumor is to be believed. Xiaomi is still reportedly in talks with Qualcomm and the pricing is not confirmed – but the final agreement presumably will not see a lot of cost reduction.
