Rumor | The Reno8 Pro will be OPPO's first mid-range smartphone with the in-house MariSilicon X NPU

The Dimensity 8100 is currently leading the way as the platform of choice in the new mid-range Android smartphone market. Now, the Reno8 series flagship may launch as the next device to be based on it. Then again, according to the prominent leaker Digital Chat Station, it may be capable of standing out from the crowd with something only heretofore seen in the flagship Find X5 line.

The MariSilicon X is OPPO's first-ever in-house chipset, and is touted as capable of boosting a 'normal' mobile CPU to top-end levels of performance by augmenting it with image signal processing (ISP) and neural processing unit (NPU) functions. The "Reno8 Pro" is now tipped as the first phone in which that theory will be tested.

Furthermore, Digital Chat Station now also hints that it and its siblings are to go international as well. This would be interesting, and not merely due to the Pro's potential specs, but because the vanilla 8 is projected to emerge as the world's first Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 phone. 

However, as the latest reports suggest, Vivo is not going to let OPPO away with all that impending mid-tier glory. It also has custom ISPs of its own, one of which is now tipped to feature in an upcoming device. This one may also be the brand's upcoming first-gen Dimensity 8100 vehicle - either that or the also-rumored Snapdragon 870-powered "Enhanced Edition".

Both of these (which may or may not have an additional Dimensity 1300-based variant) are said to join the S15e on the market as this device's more powerful siblings. Therefore, this upcoming series might be Vivo's way of competing with the increasingly well-known Reno line - although their chances of being released outside China might not be as strong as these possibly more familar OPPO smartphones.