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Qualcomm's next flagship chip is being sold online before it's even announced
Notebookcheck • • technology
Key Points:
- The die is laser-marked "SM8975-100-BC," indicating it is the first LPDDR5X engineering-sample revision, with two chips carrying distinct lot codes pointing to TSMC fabrication and Amkor assembly sites in Korea and Japan.
- The lot codes reveal packaging dates around late December 2025 and early January 2026, suggesting Qualcomm had working test silicon by late 2025 and began distributing sample units to OEMs from February 3, 2026.
- Qualcomm's heat spreader design, seen for the first time, features an internal heat spreader between the die and package lid, smaller than Samsung's Exynos 2600 "Heat Pass Block," likely due to differences in memory packaging sizes.
- Qualcomm's chip supports both LPDDR6 and LPDDR5X, requiring larger FBGA packages that limit space for the heat spreader compared to Samsung's smaller 563-ball FBGA package for LPDDR5X.
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