We don’t know if the execs at Qualcomm and Xiaomi were friends in high school or what, but the two companies enjoy a close working relationship. Sometimes this leads to sweet deals for Xiaomi – for example, the Mi 11 was the first Snapdragon 888 phone.
But perhaps the biggest score that Xiaomi achieved thanks to its cosy relationship with the chipset maker is securing a supply of Snapdragon 845 chips for the Poco F1 – a phone that cost a ridiculously low ₹21,000 ($300 at the time) of its launch in late August 2018. The European launch came with a €330 price tag (with a €30 coupon as a…