Xiaomi is the latest smartphone manufacturer to make its own processors. Other notable brands who makes their own smartphone processors include Apple, Samsung, and Huawei.

According to a report by Wired, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer wanted to control its own destiny. Company spokesman John Chan said that they wanted to make a chipset to make them stand out as innovators. "The key is having full control of the chipset and integration with the phone," Chan said.

The smartphone maker spent a total of $145 million to develop their Surge S1. It is an eight-core, ARM-based processor that can even handle 4K video. They decided to launch the Xiaomi processor with the Mi 5c.

Xiaomi Mi 5c. The octa-core 64-bit Surge S1 processor is available in the Chinese smartphone manufacturer's latest smartphone, the Mi 5c. According to Fudzilla, the 5c has a 5.5" display, 550-nit brightness, and 208 brightness levels with very precise backlight controls. It also has a slim and light premium metal body weighing 132 g and measuring 7.09mm thin.

It has a 2,860 mAh battery with 9V/2A fast charging. It also has a front fingerprint sensor. The smartphone costs $217.17. However, the Chinese smartphone maker still relies on an external chip for LTE/4G/Wi-Fi connectivity. The company had to shut down its Icera LTE modem because it was a bad idea. All in all, Mi 5c is a very remarkable smartphone.

Surge S1. The Surge S1 had remarkable Antutu benchmarks. It scored 64871 which was more than the Helio P20, Snapdragon 625, and Helio P10. For GPU benchmarks, it dominated in the GFX Bench Manhattan test. However, it fell behind the P20 for the GeekBench 4.0 CPU multi-core benchmark test.

The Xiaomi Surge S1 Pinecone processor is a great first processor for the Chinese smartphone manufacturer. In addition, the Mi 5c smartphone is equally impressive. While the smartphone is only mid-range, it boasts great specs and an even better price.

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