If all goes to plan, Oppo could introduce the world to its first smartphone with its own in-house SoC sometime in 2024.
Despite not having much traction in the United States, Oppo is one of the world’s top five smartphone manufacturers, offering a variety of handsets, with some offering features better than its competitors. While 2023 will undoubtedly become a big year for the company with its push to deliver its foldable smartphones to more people, the real tipping point could arrive in 2024, when the company delivers its first in-house SoC.
According to a new report, it looks like Oppo will release its in-house SoC sometime in 2024. The details are pretty scarce, so it is unknown at this time whether it will be a flagship caliber processor or something more mid-range. But, it has been reported by news outlets as early as last year that the company was looking towards Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) for its manufacturing partner and that it will most likely want to produce a 3-nanometer chip.
In 2020, Oppo began shifting its strategy amid US bans on Huawei products. The company started the process of designing its own chips, and for the first time in 2021, we got our first in-house processor, the MariSilicon X chip. The MariSilicon X was a dedicated imaging chip built on 6nm technology. While it wasn’t an SoC, the MariSilicon X gave us a glimpse of Oppo’s new future, one that doesn’t rely on processor and parts made from current partners like MediaTek and Qualcomm.
TSMC recently announced that it had started mass manufacturing of its 3nm chips. The company also announced expansion in the United States, with plans to open two new facilities to produce processors for Apple. While the companies did not state what kinds of products these chips would be used for, there was clarification that the factories would manufacture 3-nanometer and 4-nanometer chips. There have been reports that Apple will rely on TSMC to build 3nm chips for its next-generation products, which could arrive in devices like the iPhone 15 Pro and MacBook Pro laptops.
While Samsung was one of the earliest companies to develop its own silicon, nowadays, you have the likes of Huawei, Xiaomi, and even Google investing in manufacturing its own SoC. Beyond gaining independence, having a custom chip allows companies to build better experiences for its customers and its products. While it’s uncertain when Oppo’s chip will arrive, we can be certain that TSMC will have an extremely busy schedule in the years to come.
Source: Ice Universe (Twitter)
