Two new processors to move up a level: the race for top-of-the-line SoCs has a new competitor.
Despite Qualcomm dominating the market for top-of-the-line smartphone SoCs for a few years now, Samsung’s recent response with its Exynos 2100 gives hope that there’s still room for other competitors. Such as Mediatek, which has just presented two new processors for high-end smartphones: Mediatek Dimensity 1200 and Dimensity 1100.
Both produced by TSMC with a 6 nm process, while the other two are produced by Samsung with a 5 nm process, the new SoC by Mediatek at the test of facts should be placed on a step of performance a little ‘lower but have very competitive prices. With these processors, in fact, the Taiwanese company is trying to get out of the unprofitable limbo of mid-range processors, those for smartphones under 500 euros, and to move up a level by landing on more advanced products that require more processing capacity. Performance aside, which will be tested in the field on real smartphones production, the technical characteristics of Mediatek Dimensity 1200 and 1100 put them almost on par with competitors: a smartphone with the new Dimensity, in fact, will do the same things that a smartphone with Snapdragon 888 or Exynos 2100. But perhaps less smoothly and consuming more power.
Mediatek Dimensity 1200/1100: technical specifications
The two new SoCs from Mediatek are high-frequency 8-core ARM processors. The 1200 has a 1+3+4 configuration: 1 A78 core at 3 GHz, 3 A78 cores at 2.6 GHz and 4 a55 cores at 2 GHz. The 1100, on the other hand, is a 4+4: 4 A78 cores at 2.6 GHz and 4 A55 cores at 2 GHz. The first, therefore, compared to the second will be more powerful to run the apps that use a single core, while it will be equivalent in everything else.
Both the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 and the Exynos 2100 have a 1+3+4 configuration, with the exact same cores (they are all made by design of ARM, which has the patents) and with almost equivalent frequencies.
The big difference, therefore, is not in the CPU but in the GPU, where the new Mediatek on paper are inferior. In fact, the two Mediateks have a Mali G77 MC9 GPU with 9 cores, while the Exynos has a Mali G78 MP14 with 14 cores, while the Snapdragon 888 has an Adreno 660 GPU.
Another big difference, to the detriment of the Dimensity 1200/1100, is the RAM: while the two competitors support the latest and fastest LPDDR5 technology, the two SoCs from Mediatek stop at the previous generation LPDDR4X.
Mediatek Dimensity 1200/1100: the strong points
The two new Dimensity instead do not disfigure in terms of ability to take advantage of high-definition screens and refresh (QHD+ at 90Hz or FHD+ at 168Hz), connections (5G, Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2). Excellent, finally, support for modern photo sensors: the maximum resolution of the main camera of the smartphone is in fact 200 MP, just like the Snapdragon 888 and the Exynos 2100.