Here’s why the POCO X2 only has a mid-range chipset
Wondering why the POCO X2 only shipped with a mid-range chipset and not say, a flagship processor like the POCO F1? Well, it all boils down to cost. Android Authority managed to sit down with POCO’s general manager Manmohan Chandolu to ask why the X2 didn’t have, say a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 or even an 865, and the simple answer was simple: cost.
“Chipsets right now, all 800-series chipsets, are extremely expensive. And [the Snapdragon 865], being the first 5G generation, is just a lot more expensive,” he told Android Authority in an interview.
Even the Snapdragon 855, which should have depreciated in price enough to use in the flagship was still too expensive to use despite being almost a year old.
Then how was the company able to pull off putting in the Snapdragon 845 in the POCO F1 in the first place?
Well, when the company launched the POCO F1 in 2018, prices for the flagship chipsets weren’t as high as it was now, and only further went down the older the chipset got.
As more flagship processors integrate 5G into their chipset, we don’t expect this trend to end soon. POCO’s biggest market right now is India, after all, and the country currently has no widespread 5G infrastructure in place to make the most of flagship processors with 5G capabilities.
