Xiaomi, which uses Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810 SoC for its Note-series smartphones, will likely switch back to MediaTek for its flagship smartphones, according to industry sources.

Xiaomi uses Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810 SoC for its latest flagship series - Mi Note - compared to the company's previous flagship models utilizing MediaTek's solutions. Nevertheless, MediaTek with its recently-unveiled 10-core chip, the Helio X20, is expected to attract orders from Xiaomi, the sources said.

MediaTek has reiterated its ongoing cooperation with Xiaomi. MediaTek has been engaged in improving its competitiveness in the mid-range and high-end market segments, the company noted.

MediaTek recently announced its 10-core Helio X20 series SoC will be available for sampling in the third quarter of 2015. Models powered by the new chips are expected to arrive by the end of the year.

The MediaTek X20 SoC chips will come with a tri-cluster configuratoin comprising of two Cortex-A72 cores and four Cortex-A53 cores, and also integrate a multi-mode Cat 6 LTE modem.

In other news, Qualcomm is reportedly planning a new 10-core SoC dubbed the Snapdragon 818 to compete with MediaTek's Helio X20. The rumored 10-core chip from Qualcomm will reportedly be able to manage LTE-Cat 10 speeds.