---
title: "Xiaomi's own chip beat every Snapdragon phone on AnTuTu, and Qualcomm still powers its global flagships"
description: "A China-only foldable running Xiaomi's in-house Xring O3 topped AnTuTu's September flagship chart, clear of every Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 phone. The flagships Xiaomi sells outside China still run on Qualcomm, whose handset revenue is already falling."
publisher: "The Inference"
section: "Silicon"
published: 2026-10-10T21:15:38.823Z
modified: 2026-10-10T21:15:38.823Z
canonical: https://theinference.org/article/xiaomi-s-own-chip-beat-every-snapdragon-phone-on-antutu-and-qualcomm-still-powers-its-global-flagships
language: en
keywords: "Xiaomi, Qualcomm, Chips, Smartphones, China"
---

# Xiaomi's own chip beat every Snapdragon phone on AnTuTu, and Qualcomm still powers its global flagships

> A China-only foldable running Xiaomi's in-house Xring O3 topped AnTuTu's September flagship chart, clear of every Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 phone. The flagships Xiaomi sells outside China still run on Qualcomm, whose handset revenue is already falling.

## A China-only foldable just outscored Qualcomm's best

The [Xiaomi](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/xiaomi) 18 Fold, the first phone to run Xiaomi's in-house Xring O3 processor, finished first on [AnTuTu's September Android flagship ranking](https://www.gizmochina.com/2026/10/10/xiaomi-18-fold-tops-antutus-september-android-flagship-chart-with-xring-o3/) with an average of 4,620,886 points, ahead of every phone on [Qualcomm](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/qualcomm)'s new Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 [1]. The best Snapdragon device, the iQOO 16, trailed by 170,961 points [1]. Xiaomi [claimed 5,228,014 points at the August 24, 2026, launch](https://www.notebookcheck.net/Xiaomi-launches-XRing-O3-claims-it-is-the-fastest-smartphone-SoC-with-an-AnTuTu-score-of-over-5-million.1376668.0.html), on the older V11 build of the test; the Fold's month-long V12 average came in about 12% under the claim [1][2].

*Chart: **Xiaomi's in-house chip beat every Snapdragon phone on AnTuTu's September chart** Horizontal bars of AnTuTu September 2026 flagship scores: Xiaomi 18 Fold on Xring O3 first at 4.62 million points, ahead of iQOO 16 and other Snapdragon phones near 4.4 million.*

*Monthly averages of user-submitted AnTuTu v12 runs, September 1-30, 2026, millions of points; top ten Android flagships, chipsets in labels. The Fold entry is the 16GB RAM and 1TB storage model. Data: AnTuTu September flagship chart via Gizmochina. [1]*

## The smartphone leg is the shrinking one

The same week, Qualcomm staged Xiaomi's 18 Pro at India Mobile Congress as one of three coming Snapdragon flagships [3], and it counts Xiaomi, Motorola and ZTE among brands planning to use its two new processors [4]. In [an interview at Snapdragon Summit in Maui](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/qualcomm-cfo-talks-ai-data-173300668.html), CFO Akash Palkhiwala framed the future as "three legs of the stool", data centers, smartphones and auto IoT, each "almost equal in size" [4]. The handset leg is giving way: revenue fell 20% year over year to $5.1 billion in the June quarter, while data centers, the intended replacement, sit "in the $300 million range" against a $15 billion fiscal 2029 target [4].

*Chart: **The handset leg of Qualcomm's stool still outweighs the other two combined** Three bars of Qualcomm fiscal Q3 2026 segment revenue: handsets $5.1B, automotive $1.59B, data center about $0.3B.*

*Qualcomm segment revenue, fiscal Q3 2026 (quarter ended June 28, 2026), US$ billions. Handsets and automotive per quarterly results cited in the CFO interview; data center per the CFO's stated 'roughly $300 million' range. The $15 billion figure is Qualcomm's fiscal 2029 Investor Day target. [4]*

## Xiaomi's lineup splits against itself

The Xring phone does not merely beat rivals; it beats Xiaomi. The Snapdragon-powered 18 Pro Max sits fourth on the same list, about 225,000 points behind [1]. The Fold is also [China-only](https://theinference.org/article/xiaomi-s-300-day-one-fold-is-the-one-phone-it-won-t-sell-outside-china), priced from 10,999 yuan, with the tested 16GB/1TB model at 14,999 yuan, roughly $2,235 [1].

## Outside China, every confirmed flagship runs Snapdragon

[European certification filings](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/xiaomi-18-fold-debuts-at-ifa-with-xring-o3-first-chip-to-clear-5-million-antutu/ar-AA2bzqw3) exist for the Xiaomi 18 and 18 Pro Max, none for the Fold [5]. The global 18 Pro Max [has already benchmarked on the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6](https://www.gsmarena.com/global_xiaomi_18_pro_max_has_its_chipset_and_ram_amount_confirmed_by_a_benchmark-news-74977.php) [6]. India's 18 Pro is confirmed for a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 series chip, expected at Rs 95,000 to 1,00,000 [7]. [AnTuTu's global list](https://www.antutu.com/web/ranking), which excludes China and still carries August data, is topped by a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 phone, with no Xring device anywhere in it [8]. Xiaomi built the chip that beat Qualcomm's best, then shipped it to exactly one market.

## Xiaomi goes premium while the volume falls

Xiaomi's stated aim for Xring is to "reduce reliance on chip suppliers such as Qualcomm and MediaTek", on more than 20 billion yuan (about $2.9 billion) of investment [5]. The chip is real: [TSMC](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/tsmc)'s N3P 3nm node, ten CPU cores, the first phone processor to support LPDDR6 [2][5].

But volume is falling by design. [Memory costs](https://theinference.org/article/xiaomi-s-80-000-unit-foldable-sidesteps-the-memory-squeeze) pushed entry-level phones toward 2,000 yuan, so Xiaomi "proactively optimized" its mix: [31.2 million phones shipped in the second quarter, down 26.5%](https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/3CPA.F/earnings/3CPA.F-Q2-2026-earnings_call-680564.html), at a record-high average price, with premium models a record 32.1% of China sales [9][10]. First-half global shipments fell 23% [11].

## The next socket signal is a filing, not a score

[Apple](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/apple) has already walked this path once: only the U.S. version of the iPhone 18 Pro Max still uses a Qualcomm modem [4]. Whether Chinese flagship makers follow at the processor level is the question, and certifications answer it before benchmarks do. The next readings are the October AnTuTu list, [Qualcomm's fiscal Q4 results on November 4, 2026](https://investor.qualcomm.com/overview/default.aspx) [12], and the 2nm generation Qualcomm and MediaTek are expected to ship in 2027 [5].

## Takeaway

Xiaomi's in-house Xring O3 outscores every Snapdragon phone on AnTuTu, but it ships in exactly one market, the China-only 18 Fold. Xiaomi's global flagships stay on Qualcomm, whose handset revenue is falling and whose replacement legs are still small. The next signal is Qualcomm's November 4 results, not a benchmark.

## Sources

1. [Gizmochina, "Xiaomi 18 Fold tops AnTuTu's September Android flagship chart with XRING O3", 9 October 2026](https://www.gizmochina.com/2026/10/10/xiaomi-18-fold-tops-antutus-september-android-flagship-chart-with-xring-o3/)
2. [Notebookcheck, "Xiaomi launches XRing O3, claims it is the fastest smartphone SoC with an AnTuTu score of over 5 million", 24 August 2026](https://www.notebookcheck.net/Xiaomi-launches-XRing-O3-claims-it-is-the-fastest-smartphone-SoC-with-an-AnTuTu-score-of-over-5-million.1376668.0.html)
3. [Business Today, "IMC 2026: Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 to power three next-generation flagships from iQOO, Motorola, and Xiaomi", 9 October 2026](https://www.businesstoday.in/technology/news/story/snapdragon-8-elite-extreme-gen-6-to-power-three-next-generation-flagships-from-iqoo-motorola-and-xiaomi-560678-2026-10-09)
4. [TheStreet via Yahoo Finance, "Qualcomm CFO talks AI, data centers, and next big bet on robots", 9 October 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/qualcomm-cfo-talks-ai-data-173300668.html)
5. [Tech Times via MSN, "Xiaomi 18 Fold debuts at IFA with XRing O3, first chip to clear 5 million AnTuTu", 4 September 2026](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/xiaomi-18-fold-debuts-at-ifa-with-xring-o3-first-chip-to-clear-5-million-antutu/ar-AA2bzqw3)
6. [GSMArena, "Global Xiaomi 18 Pro Max has its chipset and RAM amount confirmed by a benchmark", 9 October 2026](https://www.gsmarena.com/global_xiaomi_18_pro_max_has_its_chipset_and_ram_amount_confirmed_by_a_benchmark-news-74977.php)
7. [NDTV Profit, "Xiaomi 18 Pro India Launch Confirmed: Dual Displays, Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6", 10 October 2026](https://www.ndtvprofit.com/technology/xiaomi-18-pro-india-launch-confirmed-dual-displays-snapdragon-8-elite-extreme-gen-6-12166138)
8. [AnTuTu, Benchmark Ranking: Smartphone Performance (global list, updated August 2026), accessed 10 October 2026](https://www.antutu.com/web/ranking)
9. [Xiaomi Q2 FY2026 earnings call transcript (William Lu, Alain Lam), Yahoo Finance, 18 August 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/3CPA.F/earnings/3CPA.F-Q2-2026-earnings_call-680564.html)
10. [ad-hoc-news, "Xiaomi's Premium Pivot: How a 26% Shipment Decline Became a Bullish Signal", 19 August 2026](https://www.ad-hoc-news.de/boerse/news/unternehmensnachrichten/xiaomi-s-premium-pivot-how-a-26-percent-shipment-decline-became-a/69971765)
11. [Gagadget, "Xiaomi 18 Fold Overtakes Flagship Rivals with Groundbreaking Xring O3 Chip in AnTuTu Rankings", 9 October 2026](https://gagadget.com/en/729474-xiaomi-18-fold-overtakes-flagship-rivals-with-groundbreaking-xring-o3-chip-in-antutu-rankings/)
12. [Qualcomm Investor Relations, overview with Q3 FY2026 results and event calendar, accessed 10 October 2026](https://investor.qualcomm.com/overview/default.aspx)


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Xiaomi's own chip beat every Snapdragon phone on AnTuTu, and Qualcomm still powers its global flagships — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/xiaomi-s-own-chip-beat-every-snapdragon-phone-on-antutu-and-qualcomm-still-powers-its-global-flagships