What you need to know
- Oppo has been rumored to be working on its own smartphone chipset.
- The Chinese phone maker will reportedly launch its first handset with an in-house processor in 2024.
- Oppo has apparently recruited thousands of people to form its own chipset division, which is said to be working on the project.
Oppo has been rumored to be developing its own smartphone chipset for quite some time now, and the latest whispers suggest that the company will finally launch the in-house processor in 2024.
According to Ice Universe (opens in new tab), the Chinese phone maker has formed a new team consisting of thousands of employees for the project. It is not clear whether other BBK Electronics-owned brands, including OnePlus, Realme, and Vivo would use the rumored chipset, but it will mark a pivotal shift in Oppo’s operations.
The new rumor suggests Oppo wants to gain more control over its smartphone business by minimizing its dependence on third-party vendors for smartphone components. In late 2021, there were speculations that the firm would use TSMC’s 3nm process to mass-produce chipsets for Oppo smartphones. According to rumors at the time, Oppo planned to introduce its own processor sometime in 2023 or 2024.
It seems that cutting reliance on major chip makers like Qualcomm is slowly becoming a goal for Android OEMs. Google has long done this, as has Samsung with its Exynos line, though the South Korean tech giant may be considering forming a new chipset division independent of Samsung LSI (which manufactures the Exynos chipsets). Huawei used to build its own Kirin processor, though it went out of business due to U.S. government bans.
Oppo’s supposed efforts aren’t entirely unprecedented. Many of today’s best Android phones are powered by custom chips, such as the Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 7 lineups, which use Google’s Tensor chip. In some parts of the world, Samsung’s existing Galaxy flagship devices ship with Exynos chipsets (except for those sold in the U.S.), though this will change soon.
The company is no stranger when it comes to building an in-house chipset, either. Oppo’s Find X5 series debuted with the MariSilicon X imaging NPU, the company’s first-ever custom processor. It won’t be too surprising, therefore, if Oppo starts producing its own smartphone chips next year.