MediaTek’s Summit took place today, which saw two big new announcements from a chipset maker not everyone may know much about.

Despite MediaTek having ARM-based chipsets in a myriad of products, from phones and laptops, smart bulbs and soundbars, TVs and set top boxes, to wearables and Wi-Fi routers, it’s probably smartphones that most people will say they’ve heard of MediaTek, and traditionally that’s a market dominated by Qualcomm.

Samsung users might also be aware of Exynos chipsets, while Huawei and Honor owners will be familiar with Kirin.

MediaTek is actively seeking to change that, and in 2020 there have been a number of smartphones across the board (from low end to high end) with MediaTek chips, including a range of 5G ones that utilise the relatively new Dimensity series of chips.

(I am currently reviewing an as-yet unannounced phone that is using a Dimensity 800U chipset, which I’ll be able to talk about in the next week or two).

Today, an all-new Dimensity 700 processor has been announced that will further boost the 5G smartphone market, allowing the next-generation networking technology to feature in ever cheaper models, but without compromising on performance.

The 7nm chipset offers dual 5G (Dual SIM, Dual Standby), 5G with carrier aggregation, support for 64-megapixel cameras, 90Hz refresh rate Full HD displays and 28% more power efficiency over 8nm chips.

Dimensity 700 also operates at speeds of up to 2.2GHz with 2133MHz LPDDR4X RAM and UFS 2.2 2-lane storage (1Gb/s).

MediaTek is also seeking to get a stronger foothold in the Chromebook space, and as the owner of both an Acer R13 and Lenovo Chromebook Duet, I’ve already had time to use and talk about the benefits of an ARM based chipset in a laptop running Android applications.

With its latest two chips, MediaTek boasts of a big uplift in performance without compromising the incredible battery life that its chips has brought to the many existing devices using its hardware.

MediaTek states that you should expect the first new devices using these chipsets to appear on the market in the second quarter of 2021, and hopefully that means we’ll hear about them at the upcoming virtual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January.

• MediaTek invested over $2.5bn in R&D in 2020 and is currently working on a series of world firsts, like 5G Satellite IoT data connections and IoT with three combinations of NR (5G) carrier aggregation, as well as prepping for things like Wi-Fi 7 even as Wi-Fi 6 is still rolling out to multiple markets.
• 40% of 5G smartphones in China are using a MediaTek chipset.
• In addition to smartphones, MediaTek is developing other 5G solutions including in-car telematics, 5G data cards, 5G mobile broadband routers, and industrial 5G products (including mmWave 5G).

Finally, MediaTek teased us with news of a new 5G chipset to be announced before the end of 2020, based on 6nm process and sporting ARM A78 cores running at 3GHz.

You can read more about today’s new announcements below.

Press Releases

MediaTek Unveils Its Newest 5G Chipset, Dimensity 700, For Mass Market 5G Smartphones

Dimensity 700 caters to growing consumer demand for 5G devices

HSINCHU, Taiwan – Nov. 10, 2020 – MediaTek today unveiled its new Dimensity 700 5G smartphone chipset, a 7nm SoC designed to bring advanced 5G capabilities and experiences to the mass market. The addition of the Dimensity 700 to MediaTek’s Dimensity family of 5G chips gives device makers a full suite of options for 5G smartphone models – from flagship and premium to mid-range and mass market devices – making 5G more accessible for consumers everywhere.

“With our expanded Dimensity portfolio we’re bringing the latest 5G capabilities to every smartphone tier so more people can enjoy 5G experiences,” said Dr. JC Hsu, Corporate VP and GM of MediaTek’s Wireless Communications Business Unit. “The Dimensity 700 has an impressive mix of 5G connectivity features, advanced camera capabilities like night shot enhancements and multiple voice assistant support, all in a super power-efficient design.”

The Dimensity 700 packs advanced connectivity features including 5G Carrier Aggregation (2CC 5G-CA) and 5G dual SIM dual standby (DSDS), giving users access to the fastest speeds and 5G-exclusive Voice over New Radio (VoNR) services from either connection. On the processing power side, the chip integrates two Arm Cortex-A76 big cores in its octa-core CPU and operates at up to 2.2GHz.

Key features of Dimensity 700 include:

– MediaTek 5G UltraSave: Delivers advanced power-saving technologies to improve battery life. It includes UltraSave Network Environment Detection, MediaTek 5G UltraSave OTA Content Awareness, Dynamic BWP and Connected Mode DRX. The built-in technology intelligently manages a device’s 5G connection so you can do more and charge your device less often.
– Premium 90Hz Display: Brands can design smartphones with crisp, high resolution FullHD+ displays and ultra-fast refresh rates to reduce blur in animations, scrolling and games for the best user experience.
– Up to 64MP Cameras & Night Shot Enhancements: Supports 48MP or 64MP main camera sensors with AI-bokeh, AI-color and AI-beauty features. Plus, the integrated hardware-based imaging accelerators enable multi-frame noise reduction so users can capture high quality shots with low noise, even at night.
– Multiple Voice Assistant Support: Supports voice assistants from global brands such as Alibaba, Amazon, Baidu, Google and Tencent to give device makers more configuration options.

The Dimensity 700 continues MediaTek’s legacy of bring advanced connectivity, multimedia and imaging features to consumers everywhere. MediaTek’s Dimensity 5G family of chips bring smart and fast together to power 5G devices across all tiers, and with the Dimensity 700 5G devices will now be accessible to even more consumers.

MediaTek Announces New MT8192 and MT8195 Chipsets Designed for Next Generation of Chromebooks

New chipsets to power premium and mainstream Chromebooks and enhance computing experiences

HSINCHU, Taiwan – Nov. 10, 2020 – MediaTek today unveiled its MT8192 and MT8195 chipsets for the next generation of Chromebooks. With the 7nm MT8192 for mainstream devices and the 6nm MT8195 for premium devices, brands can design powerful, sleek and lightweight Chromebooks that deliver longer battery life and incredible computing experiences from video conferencing and streaming video to cloud gaming and AI-powered applications.

“Chromebooks are seeing an unprecedented surge in popularity as more people work remotely and take online classes. MediaTek already powers some of the most popular Chromebooks on the market, and will continue to improve and drive user experiences forward with our new chipsets,” said Jerry Yu, Corporate Senior Vice President at MediaTek. “The MT8192 and MT8195 give brands more features to design powerful Chromebooks with innovative form factors that can flip, fold or detach, are slim and lightweight, and have great battery life.”

The MT8192 and MT8195 chipsets each integrate a high performance AI processing unit (APU) to power a wide range of voice and vision-based applications. MediaTek’s powerful APU technology is designed to seamlessly process voice ID recognition and voice control, speech and image recognition, speech to text, live translation, object recognition, background removal, noise reduction, image and video segmentation, gesture control and Google AR Core-based enhancements, all in real-time. Both chipsets also have a dedicated audio digital signal processor (DSP) to enable ultra-low power voice wakeup (VoW) for voice assistants.

Brands can design Chromebooks with a variety of camera configurations thanks to a high dynamic range (HDR) image signal processor and hardware depth engine built into the chipsets. This gives device makers the option to integrate super-large 80MP 4-cell cameras, single 32MP cameras or dual camera setups up to 16 MP + 16 MP to bring Chromebooks sharp and crisp HDR for video conferencing.

MediaTek’s MT8195, built on the 6nm TSMC process, integrates an octa-core CPU with four Arm CortexA78 cores for compute intensive applications and four power-efficient Arm Cortex-A55 cores to simultaneously handle background tasks and maximize battery life. The MT8195 also integrates MediaTek’s APU 3.0, providing up to 4 TOPS performance. The powerful five-core Arm-Mali G57 GPU delivers great visuals, while quad-channel 2133MHz LPDDR4X ensures there is plenty of memory bandwidth for the powerful cores. The MT8195 also supports up to three simultaneous displays so users can enjoy more screen real estate whether they’re working, gaming or just browsing the internet.

With support for Dolby Vision, 7.1 surround sound audio and a Codec AV1 hardware video accelerator, users can enjoy cinema-quality experiences for streaming movies and TV shows from the most popular online services. Additionally, AV1 hardware decoding uses less data while still offering stunning graphics and smooth video experiences.

MediaTek’s MT8192 integrates an octa-core CPU with four Arm Cortex-A76 cores and four Arm CortexA55 to provide an ideal balance of power and efficiency. MediaTek’s APU 2.0 provides the MT8192 with up to 2.4 TOPs performance. The chipset also packs a powerful five-core Arm Mali-G57 GPU to deliver great visuals, plus 2133MHz LPDDR4x and UFS 2.1 storage. The MT8192 supports wide quad high definition (WQHD) displays with standard 60Hz refresh-rates, or FullHD+ displays with up to 120Hz refresh-rates for super-fast responsiveness. Additionally, the chipset can support two Full HD displays simultaneously.

Both chipsets also integrate 4K HDR video decoding to provide excellent video quality while also maximizing battery life, allowing users to watch their favorite content for longer. In addition, the MT8192 and MT8195 support PCI-Express Gen 3 and USB 3.2 Gen 1.

Chromebooks powered by the MT8192 will hit the market in Q2 2021. The MT8195 will power premium Chromebooks, smart displays, tablets and other smart devices, which will hit the market at a later date.