RedMagic and Nubia allegedly join the first-to-Snapdragon 8 Gen1 race

Qualcomm is getting increasingly transparent about the prospect of a Snapdragon 8 Gen1 tipped to supplant the 888-line SoCs as early as November 30, 2021. According to recent reports, Xiaomi and Motorola will be as hot on its heels as possible with almost subsequent launches for new flagships that might be among the first to feature this new silicon.

In fact, this 12 series and the Edge X/30 Ultra are thought to be currently involved in a bitter contest to beat each other to the title of the world's inaugural Snapdragon 8 Gen1 devices. Now, there are signs that ZTE, in the form of both its RedMagic and Nubia subsidiaries, is also poised to join this race.

These rumors have been encouraged by new claims from the leaker Passionategeekz that successors to the RedMagic 6 and 6 Pro, not to mention the Nubia Z30 Pro, are a go. All 3 devices are thought to run on the 8 Gen1, and it is thought that all 3 will be ushered into their emerging arena as soon as possible.

All of the putative new phones are also now thought to have specific model numbers, one of which (the NX679J or "RedMagic 7") has been spotted on the Bluetooth SIG database recently. Neither of the others - the NX709J/"7 Pro" and NX701J/"Nubia Z40" - have emerged in similar official certifications as yet; nevertheless, this initial leak may be a convincing sign that they are indeed on the way, rumored product names and all.

Whenever these alleged next-gen devices do materialize, it will be interesting to see what they make of the Gen1 chipset, RedMagic in particular. The Android gaming brand is already known for packing physical fans, advanced cooling and industry-leading refresh rates into its flagship line: therefore, the 6-series' successors might be well placed to build on this reputation for speed and power in the near future.

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