MediaTek has bet big on 5G and slowly but steadily we are seeing the fruits of its investment in the new generation network technology. Today, MediaTek has announced the Dimensity 1000 5G, its brand new high-end smartphone chipset that will take on the likes of Snapdragon 855 and Kirin 990 5G. In case you are wondering, this is the same MediaTek MT6885Z 5G chipset revealed a few months back. AnTuTu confirms Dimensity 1000 is the MT6889. Today, the Taiwanese chipmaker has revealed its official name and specifications.
MediaTek has made it clear that they mean business with the Dimensity 1000 5G chipset. The processor features four high-end Cortex-A77 based BIG cores clocked at 2.6GHz and four Cortex-A55 power-efficient cores clocked at 2.0GHz. Interestingly, this is a dual cluster arrangement instead of the tri-cluster arrangements that we’ve been seeing on high-end processors like Kirin 990, Snapdragon 855 and even Exynos 990. The new MediaTek chip comes with the new Mali-G77 MP9 GPU, which is the same one found on the Exynos 990 with a couple of cores less.
5G is one of the biggest highlights of the MediaTek Dimensity 1000 chipset. It comes with an integrated Helio M70 5G modem that saves space and is efficient at the same time. It is the world’s fastest throughput SoC with 4.7Gbps downlink and 2.5Gbps uplink speeds and supports both standalone and non-standalone networks (Sa/NSA). It also comes with multi-mode support so it supports all networks from 5G to 2G. Note that the Dimensity 1000 5G is a sub-6GHz chip and does not support the mmWave 5G networks that are used on a wide scale in countries like the U.S.
The new MediaTek 5G chip is also the world’s first SoC to support dual 5G SIMs. So you can use two 5G SIM cards in a phone powered by this processor. Existing 5G chipsets only support 5G in one SIM card slot.
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MediaTek Dimensity 1000 5G is also AI heavy, all thanks to its 5-core APU. This includes two heavy cores, three medium cores, and one light core. MediaTek claims that this design improves the efficiency of AI-related tasks. For example, simple tasks like facial recognition might use just the light core while power-hungry AI apps such as the camera can use the heavy cores. In terms of performance figures, the new chip boasts of 4.5 TOPS (trillion operations per second).
MediaTek’s new 5G chip comes with a capable 5-core ISP as well. It supports single cameras up to 80MP and dual camera setups featuring a 32MP and 16MP sensors. Another big highlight of this new chip is its support for HDR video. In fact, the Dimensity 1000 5G is the world’s first SoC to support multi-frame HDR video. It is also the first chip to support Google AV1 format up to 4K resolution at 60fps. The chip supports QHD+ displays with a 90Hz refresh rate and FHD+ displays with up to 120Hz refresh rate. The Dimensity 1000 5G supports Wi-Fi 6, BL 5.1, and Voice over New Radio (VoNR).
The first smartphones with Dimensity 1000 5G chipset will launch in Q1 2020 in markets like China & other Asian countries. US & EU will get the new chip powered devices in the second half of 2020.
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