Xiaomi’s MIUI 12 had the longest ever lifespan in the entire MIUI story, or at least for what we can remember. The Chinese firm announced it earlier in 2020 and the update got two incremental updates in the form of MIUI 12.5 and MIUI 12.5 Enhanced. Almost one year and a half later, the company seems to be ready to move on with MIUI 13. The upcoming software may arrive next month alongside the Xiaomi 12 flagship lineup. The latest reports indicate a bunch of smartphones will get beta builds with Android 11 and Android 12. So there will be hope even for those stuck on Android 11. The latest development cites the Redmi K50 series which is set to come with MIUI 13 straight out of the box.
Redmi K50 variants will bring different chipsets
The Redmi K50 series is expected to bring at least four smartphones – Redmi K50, K50 Pro, K50 Pro+ and K50 Gaming Edition. There are even rumors about a Redmi K50 SE. These models will bring different chipsets like Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, Snapdragon 870+, MediaTek Dimensity 7000, and Dimensity 9000. All those smartphones will carry MIUI 13 straight out of the box. Curiously, recent reports suggest that they will still ship with Android 11 which is a bit crazy at this point. Most of the sources suggest that the Redmi K50 debut will be in the first quarter of 2022. But this is rather vague as it could mean anytime between January 2022 and March 2022. Launching a device in March 2022 with Android 11 would be unacceptable, so we believe that Android 12 is more plausible.
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MediaTek Dimensity 7000 and 9000 variants will lag behind Qualcomm variants
According to the reputed leakster Digital Chat Station, while the software experience is the same, there will be performance discrepancies. Apparently, the Redmi K50 smartphones with Dimensity 7000 and Dimensity 9000 SoCs will be underperforming compared to their siblings with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen1 chips. This is understandable for the Dimensity 7000. After all, it is an intermediary option. The true premium chipset is the Dimensity 9000 SoC. However, the report puts Dimensity 9000 performance on doubt.
The Redmi K50 or the K50 SE will be powered by the Dimensity 7000, the Gaming variant will pack the MediaTek Dimensity 9000. The Redmi K50 Pro may use the Snapdragon 870 successor. The K50 Pro+ is most likely the only one bringing Qualcomm’s premium Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC.
We don’t know exactly how the MediaTek 9000 will underperform in comparison to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. At least “on paper” these two chipsets have the same specifications. Of course, we suspect that the Adreno 730 will be more powerful than the Mali GPU on MediaTek’s SoC. However, there are other software tweaks that main give the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 a certain advantage. Only time and real-world usage will be able to determine.
These Redmi K50 phones will likely escape China with a POCO rebranding.
