Today we are going to introduce a new phone from Tecno, the SPARK 9 Pro. Tecno is a brand that I’m sure no one is unfamiliar with. Their phones are selling very well in emerging countries and regions. The SPARK 9 Pro is one of their new entry-level phones, which is available for only around $170. Interestingly, after using the SPARK 9 Pro for a while, it gave me a new perspective on entry-level phones.

Let’s take a quick look at what’s in the box for the SPARK 9 Pro. A hard PC case. I really like this case because usually soft cases will turn yellow after a while, PC cases do not. Then there is a 18w charger. Card pin and charging cable, and a wired headset. Yes, it has a headphone jack. And there’s an even rarer feature than the headphone jack: the message alert light.

This is very useful on phones without AOD. In addition, the SIM card slot supports both dual SIM and SD Card, and has a red rubber ring to prevent water and dust ingress, indicating that the SPARK 9 Pro is to some extent waterproof. Even though it is sold at a low price, it does not use the Micro-B charging port. The fingerprint recognition is also on the side instead of on the back. And it looks really good.

The back and bezel are purely flat, and the part of the hand grip is frosted. The logo and slogan are on the right side, I prefer this way of putting them in the corner than the practice of enlarging the slogan. The camera module has only two circles, very simple. That’s right, an entry-level phone camera does not need to have much-exaggerated design, simple is the best.

TECNO SPARK 9 Pro Review: Cameras

SPARK 9 Pro comes with a 32MP front camera. Compared to many 8MP or 16MP front cameras, it wins at least in the number of pixels. And there’s an AI Portrait enhancer feature that will make your photos sharper even in low light conditions. It’s not a gimmick, it really enhances the clarity of the photo. And in its beauty mode, as you can see in this photo, the mole is removed from the face.

Its front camera even works with Super Night mode, which improves exposure and reduces noise at night. It also has the Ring Screen Fill-in Light, a message alert light that can be used as a front-facing flash, which is only available on some phones that focus on selfies.

It simply turned my perception of entry phones upside down. It’s not recommended to turn on the flash when it’s very dark, because your hair might blend in with the background. Many flagship phones have a front camera that can only record 1080P video, but this 32MP front camera supports video recording at up to 2K resolution. It doesn’t have EIS, but once you think about its price, you feel that the Tecno SPARK 9 Pro’s front camera is way ahead of phones in its price range.

After introducing the front camera, let’s take a look at the rear camera. The rear camera of SPARK 9 Pro is a bit more ordinary compared to the front. There is only one 50MP main camera, the other two are auxiliary lenses. But the main camera is a bit surprisingly good in everyday use. The dynamic range is excellent, and the images are clear. Perhaps because of the Bokeh camera, the bokeh effect in portrait mode is very good. I really like the effect of this bokeh background, as long as it does not go wrong, it is very much like a photo taken by a professional camera.

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While the daytime photos are not much better than other brands, the photos in the dark light will surely surprise you. Night photos in auto mode are just like any other entry phone, easily partially overexposed, which is a normal performance at this price point. But once you turn on super night mode, the quality of your photos will soar. Dynamic range is improved and exposure in low light is back to normal, looking like a photo taken by a $300+ phone. Generally speaking, entry-level phones can’t do this, so it seems that TECNO has really worked hard on the night mode algorithm.

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By the way, the main camera of SPARK 9 Pro also supports 2K 30fps video recording. Because there is no EIS, you better not record while walking.

TECNO SPARK 9 Pro Review: Performance & Battery

The screen of SPARK 9 Pro is an FHD+ LCD screen. This waterdrop LCD screen is the standard specification for entry-level phones.

The processor is MTK’s G85, also an entry processor and PUBG can only be turned on at 30fps, but the good news is that the game frame rate is stable.

And it’s very power saving, with its big 5000mAh battery, 20 minutes of PUBG only consumes 4%. 30 minutes of Tiktok consumes 4%. 1080P online video consumes 5%. Anyway, I wasn’t able to drain its battery in a day.

Most of the starter phones we’ve seen are pretty much the same, except for slightly different designs. But the SPARK 9 Pro is the only entry phone I’ve seen that focuses on selfies. And the rear camera is also so good that it’s hard to believe this is an entry-level phone that only sells for $170.

If you have higher requirements for photos and selfies, then it’s definitely worth buying at this price point.

The post Tecno SPARK 9 Pro Review: Selfie phones can be so cheap appeared first on Gizmochina.

A new report has revealed the global application processor market for smartphones in the second quarter of this year. This report reveals that MediaTek has managed to retain its top spot with a sizeable 38 percent market share.

According to a CounterPoint Research report, the Taiwanese chipmaking giant continued to lead the global AP market in this quarter, with its Dimensity 700 series dominating the 5G market. On the other hand, the Helio P35 and Helio G80 were quite popular in the 4G LTE segment. This report also marks the sizeable growth of MediaTek in recent times as the company’s latest Dimensity chipsets have become increasingly more popular across both mid range and entry level smartphones.

Meanwhile, its rival Qualcomm arrived second with a market share of 32 percent. The company saw a notable market share due to its processor’s popularity in the high end 5G market. Furthermore, Apple managed to capture the third spot with 15 percent market share thanks to the strong demand for its iPhone 12 and continued sales momentum. Samsung and UNISOC took the fourth and fifth spot with a 7 percent and 5 percent respectively. The latter saw a strong first half performance as it gained design wins with Honor and Realme in the 4G LTE smartphone market.

RELATED:

• Redmi 10 launched with MediaTek Helio G88 SoC, 50MP quad-camera, 90Hz display, and more
• MediaTek unveils 6nm Dimensity 920 and Dimensity 810 chipsets
• Leak reveals the Honor X20 will be powered by a different MediaTek chipset
• Blackview BL5000 rugged gaming smartphone launched with MediaTek 700 SoC and 6.39 inch display
• MediaTek launches Dimensity 5G Open Resource Architecture allowing phone makers to tweak performance

The post MediaTek retains its top spot in Global App Processor market in Q2 2021 appeared first on Gizmochina.

Mediatek might have given up on their high-end X series lineup, but the company is slowly but steadily expanding its mid-range Helio series. After seeing good response for its upper mid-range Helio P60 processor, the company has added a new chipset to the lineup, the Helio P22. Alongside the Helio P23 and the P30, the new processor will power mid-range smartphones.

The Helio P22 comes with eight Cortex A53 cores clocked at 2.0GHz. MTK boasts that it is one of the first chipmakers to bring 12nm processors to the budget segment. The chip features Mediatek’s Neuropilot tech which comes with support for TensorFlow, TF Lite, Caffe, and Caffe2. It can select the best available AI resource for developer efficiency.

RELATED: Taiwan Govt Permits MediaTek to Supply Components to ZTE

Mediatek has made sure that the new chipset also comes with trending 2018 features. So there’s support for dual 13+8MP (up to 30fps) cameras and for up to 20:9 (720×1600 pixel) tall displays. The chip offers hardware as well as software based depth sensing. In fact, the P22 has a capable yet efficient hardware depth engine which brings real time bokeh previews to budget smartphones.

Other features include Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi ac, 4G support on both the SIMs, and 4-satellite GNSS.

Mass production of the chip is already underway and smartphones featuring Helio P22 will hit the markets by the end of Q2 2018.

The post MediaTek Announces Helio P22 Chipset For Affordable Smartphones appeared first on Gizmochina.

Mediatek announced the Helio P60 premium mid-range platform at MWC 2018. Now, the chipmaker has officially launched the processor in China at an official event in the Beijing 798 Art Zone. The company showcased the key features of its new chipset at the event including its AI capabilities.

One of the interesting aspects of the new Helio P60 is that it’s using a 12nm manufacturing node from TSMC. This is the first smartphone chipset on this node and features better efficiency than the 14nm process used by major mid-range chipsets including the Snapdragon 660. MTK has reportedly said that it will continue using 12nm node for all its premium chipsets until it makes the jump to 7nm in 2019.

The GM of Mediatek’s Wireless Communication Division went on to explain that the new chipset is all about efficiency. As compared to the previous generation Helio P30, the P60 reduces power consumption during heavy usage by up to 25%. Overall, the new chip boasts of a solid 12% dip in power consumption. This is important since the P60 is going to be one of the high-end offerings from the company this year, which means it’ll end up in upper mid-range devices who quite often have to deal with high performance games and apps.

The SoC is made up of four high-performance Cortex A73 cores and four power efficient Cortex A53 cores, both clocked up to 2GHz. It features a triple-core ISP and a dual-core APU (short for AI Processing Unit) making sure that it can handle modern features requiring AI, AR, and VR with ease. Some of the key highlights of the chip include its advanced facial recognition capabilities and its support for both single and dual camera bokeh.

RELATED: MediaTek Helio P60 Gets Benchmarked, Scores As High As Snapdragon 660

After a failed strategy last year, Mediatek is hoping to bounce back this year with the Helio P60. The OPPO R15 is expected to feature this new chipset and multiple smartphone companies, including Meizu and Xiaomi are said to have plans to use P60 in their premium mid-rangers this year.

With the Helio P60 expected to perform quite similar to the powerful SD660, would you buy a smartphone powered by this new chip?

(Source)

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CES 2018 may not have been as great as we expected, but MWC 2018 definitely didn’t disappoint. Despite the fact that majority of the manufacturers (Huawei, LG, HTC, Xiaomi) decided to skip this event to unveil their big guns, the event currently going on in Barcelona still managed to keep us all interested with launches like the Vivo Apex and the Matebook X Pro.

So, let’s take a look at the top launches from MWC 2018.

DAY ZERO:

Sunday was an exceptionally busy day for tech enthusiasts given that three major manufacturers had lined up announcements one after the other. And yes, there was the LG announcement too, launching the LG V30S ThinQ model, but to be honest, that wasn’t the highlight of the day.

The following were the top products announced on Sunday.

HUAWEI MATEBOOK X PRO

Huawei kicked off MWC 2018 with its amazing Matebook X Pro. There’s no doubt that the new laptop is inspired by the bezel-less design of the Dell XPS 13 but the company has taken things to another level. The company has integrated the web camera as a pop up component on the keyboard, ensuring you are away from prying eyes when the camera is not in use. Not only that, the Matebook X Pro features a 3:2 aspect ratio that enables more pixels on the screen with a resolution of 3000 x 2000. Coming from a company that entered the laptop market just a couple of years ago, the Matebook X Pro is definitely a product worthy of your attention.

Read more about the Matebook X Pro and its features from here.

NOKIA 8 Sirocco, Nokia 7 PLUS, & NOKIA 8110

Nokia managed to impress us with its strategy last year, slowing gaining ground in the ever competitive smartphone market. The company used the event on Sunday to unveil a number of new smartphones for the global market. First of all, the Nokia 6 2018 model is finally coming to markets outside of China. It’s a great phone (our hands on here!) in the budget segment.

New announcements of the day included the Nokia 8 Sirocco edition with upgraded features and specs. Basically, the Sirocco is what the Nokia 8 should have been and with Snapdragon 835 inside, the phone could have been a great option back in 2017. But it might be a little too late to the party in 2018, especially with its costly price tag.

The Nokia 7 Plus is actually the most interesting smartphone of the lot. The phone features the powerful Snapdragon 660 chipset with dual cameras and 2X optical zoom. It’s being marketed as a premium mid-ranger and also adopts the current trend of 18:9 aspect ratio for its display, which is something that the Nokia 6 2018 model skipped. For less than $400, the phone offers pretty amazing value. Read more about the model here! Note that there’s a Nokia 7 Plus China edition too, which is cheaper by the way.

The new Nokia 8110 Slider refreshes the iconic banana phone. With a banana yellow shade, the company is definitely trying to bring back the trend to current market. However, apart from the looks, the phone has nothing extraordinary. So, we wonder who will end up buying this one, despite its iconic design. More about the phone here.

Samsung Galaxy S9 & S9+

The Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ unveil were the two most powerful launches on Sunday. The South Korean giant has retained what was good about the S8 and made some minor yet necessary upgrades in the new S9 & S9+ models. Powered by SD845 (in US and China) and Exynos 9810 in other markets, the phone is the most powerful flagship from Samsung till date. The camera gets a super slo-mo bump at 960 fps at 720p among other upgrades. The S9 keeps a single camera module, while the S9+ gets the expected dual camera upgrade.

Read all about the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus from here.

DAY ONE:

The first official day of the MWC 2018 saw Sony & Vivo grab all the attention.

Vivo Apex

Vivo surprised us all by revealing the Vivo Apex Concept smartphone on Monday. It is definitely one of the most interesting smartphone concepts that we have seen lately. The phone features a nearly 98% screen to body ratio, which is insane for a smartphone. The company reportedly made this possible by integrating the microchips directly into the flexible circuit board. Further, the phone features a unique pop up periscope front camera, which enabled the company to limit the front bezel to a bare minimum. Further, there are other high-end tech for its speakers and ear piece.

You can read all about the Vivo Apex Concept from here.

Sony Xperia XZ2 & XZ2 Compact

Sony’s smartphone department wasn’t doing so well in the past few years. Some of its phones have been promising, but as an overall package, the Japanese giant often failed to impress. However, with the XZ2 series, the company is hoping to change some things. First of all, it has ditched the omnibalance design and now, the new models feature an 18:9 aspect ratio display along with a revamped ‘ambient flow’ design. The XZ2 flagship features wireless charging as well.

Overall, if priced correctly the Sony Xperia XZ2 series could be a game changer for the company. You can read all about these two models from here.

Helio P60

Mediatek has given up on its flagship X series chipsets but that doesn’t mean that the company is out of the smartphone market. MTK unveiled the brand new Helio P60 chipset on Monday at MWC 2018, featuring promising specs that can take on the SD660 chip. The company plans to compete in the premium mid-range segment with its new chipset and comes with the new NeuroPilot AI processing tech along with Mali-G73 MP3 GPU to ensure it can handle the premium features of a flagship grade smartphone.

More about the chipset and its specs here.

DAY TWO:

The second day at MWC 2018 saw Nubia and ASUS revealing its top phones for the year.

NUBIA’s First Gaming Phone

Smartphone manufacturers seem to be interested in the concept of gaming phones and Nubia is the first Chinese smartphone company to reveal details about its new Gaming phone. Inspired by a super car design, Nubia’s gaming flagship concept features several cuts and creases at the back with the camera module arranged vertically. The design retains its symmetry and Nubia seems to have done a fine job in making this smartphone design.

The phone is confirmed to launch in China sometime in the coming months, so it’s not just another concept that may never see the light of the day. You can read more about the company’s gaming concept here.

ASUS Zenfone 5Z and Zenfone 5

ASUS unveiled its big guns yesterday, announcing the Zenfone 5 and the Zenfone 5Z models. The Zenfone 5Z is the pick of the lot featuring SD845, 6GB RAM, a 6.2-inch FHD+ display with 90% screen to body ratio — in under $500! But the Zenfone 5 is also a great smartphone, differing from the 5Z model in the processor department (SD636) and memory (4GB RAM).

ASUS isn’t ashamed to accept that the two phones are iPhone X inspired, but it does add that their notch is smaller.

Read all about the two ASUS Zenfone 5 models from here. You can also check out the ASUS Zenfone 5 Lite and the ASUS Zenfone M1 Max models.

This sums up all the major announcements at MWC 2018 so far!

Stay tuned to our MWC 2018 coverage from here.

The post Top Launches From MWC 2018 So Far: Which Products Stood Out? appeared first on Gizmochina.

MediaTek revealed back in November that it was going to take a break from the top-end chipset segment in order to focus more on the mid-range market. The move wasn’t surprising given that its flagship chip of 2017, the Helio X30 failed to garner attention from the big players, except for Meizu, who used it inside the Pro 7 Plus flagship. But considering how even the Pro 7 Plus didn’t do so well, we can only assume that the overall sales of the new chipset has been disappointing this year.

Now, MediaTek’s Deputy General Manager, Kuan Chou Chen, revealed in the year end media meet that the company will launch two new P-series processors in 2018. The performance of the two chips is said to be impressive but the focus will be on advanced AI, edge computing, and computer vision technologies. This includes facial recognition tech, which has become the sought after feature in the past few months. Apart from facial recognition, advanced computer vision will enable better AR / VR and 3D sensing capabilities of the chip.

While it is said that the performance of the new Helio P-series family is going to be impressive, the executive failed to give out any specific details. An earlier rumour has said that the Helio P40 chip will feature two powerful Cortex A73 cores in an hexa-core architecture. Traditionally, MTK has been a big fan of large number of cores in its chipsets, so it remains to be seen if the company scales down to a hexa-core design for its new P-series processors.

At present, the most powerful chipset in the P-series family is the MediaTek Helio P30. The chip features eight Cortex A53 cores clocked at 2.3GHz with Mali-G71 MP2 GPU, 4G LTE WorldMode modem, VPU (Vision Processing Unit), and the company’s CorePilot 4.0 technology. However, we haven’t seen many P30 phones in the market, apart from the Gionee M7 which was announced back in September. Its slightly lower-end brother, the MediaTek Helio P23 is currently found on multiple OPPO smartphones, including the recently launched OPPO A79 and OPPO A75/75S.

(Source)

The post Next Gen. MediaTek Helio P-Series Processors Will Focus On AI & Facial Recognition appeared first on Gizmochina.

In the race for the top flagship chipset in the market, MediaTek was left behind this year. Processors from Samsung and Qualcomm have really taken performance to a whole new level, which is why 2017 is going to be a very important year for the Taiwanese chipmaker. However, it looks like things haven’t started too well for its flagship chipset, the Helio X30, which was just announced a few weeks back.

According to a well-known tech personality on Weibo, Helio X30’s market reaction hasn’t been very positive so far. In fact, he revealed that the three major smartphone companies in China namely, Huawei, OPPO, and Vivo are not going to use this chipset in 2017. Huawei’s lack of interest in Helio X30 would be understandable, given its increased focus on its own Kirin chipsets, but it’s said that both Vivo and OPPO (the two fast-growing smartphone companies in China today) are not interested in the chip, which is surprising. Even Taiwan’s own HTC isn’t willing to go with this top MediaTek chip. So, MediaTek may eventually have to rely on companies like Xiaomi and Meizu to ship a decent amount of Helio X30 processors. It’s worth noting that an insider has already revealed that Meizu’s flagship of 2017 would be powered by this MTK flagship processor.

On paper, the Helio X30 looks like a powerful chipset. First of all, it is built using the super efficient and the latest 10nm manufacturing node, joining the likes of other top flagship processors of 2017. Thanks to its two Cortex A73 cores for top-end performance, MediaTek claims that the performance increases by up to 43% as compared to its predecessors. Further, the power consumption reduces by as much as 53%.

RELATED: MediaTek Announces Two New High-End Chips: Helio X23 & X27

It looks like Helio X30’s start hasn’t been pretty, with this news and then the recent alleged benchmark of the chipset showing sub-standard scores. While it’s too early to say whether Helio X30 will be successful, what I would like to see is the true performance of the deca-core architecture unleashed. MTK really needs its top flagship processors to perform well in 2017.

What do you think?

The post MediaTek Helio X30’s Market Response Isn’t Very Positive: Huawei, OPPO & Vivo May Not Use it appeared first on Gizmochina.

Next year is the year of 10nm chips and most of the major chip manufacturers have announced their own 10nm SoCs. Qualcomm already announced its Snapdragon 835 processor which will be manufactured by Samsung. Mediatek has also announced the deca-core Helio X30 which is being manufactured by TSMC, and we have heard rumors of a Kirin 970 chip from Huawei. While it is too early to decide which one is best, there is no harm in doing a comparison with the amount of info already out there.

Number of Cores

Qualcomm is sticking to eight-cores in a 4+4 combination for the Snapdragon 835. Mediatek on the other hand is not new to deca-cores chips; the Helio X20 and Helio X25 both have 10 cores, and the trend is set to continue with the X30. The Helio X30 will consist of four Cortex-A73 cores, four Cortex-A53 cores and two Cortex-A53 cores. The Kirin 970, just like the Kirin 960, is expected to use an 8-core setup (4 x Cortex-A73 cores+4 x Cortex-A53 cores).

Clock Speed

The SD 835 SoC will have a maximum clock speed of 3.0GHz but expect some manufacturers like Xiaomi to lower the clock speed. During the launch of the Helio X30, Mediatek already said the Cortex-A73 cores will be able to reach a clock speed of up to 2.8GHz. The clock speed for Huawei’s Kirin 970 is unknown but we assume it will be between 2.8GHz – 3.0GHz.

LTE Categories

Qualcomm is going all out by using using a combination of Cat. 13 and Cat. 16 for downlink and uplink. Mediatek’s Helio X30 will use a combination of Cat.10 and Cat.12 while the Kirin 970 is expected to use Cat. 12.

READ MORE: Meizu’s Pro 7 Flagship Rumored to Feature Huawei’s Kirin 960 Chip

To sum it up, the Snapdragon 835 will offer a performance increase of 27% over previous generation and Mediatek’s Helio X30 will get a 43% increase in performance. How much performance increase the Kirin 970 will have over the Kirin 960 is not known until there is an official announcement.

The post 10nm BattleChip: Snapdragon 835 vs Helio X30 vs Kirin 970 appeared first on Gizmochina.

While all the chips mentioned above are high-end processors that should end up in flagship phones, new rumor from China states that MediaTek could consider using the same 10nm manufacturing node for its budget Helio P35 chip as well. MediaTek’s P series chipsets which is the company’s ‘Performance’ series usually end up in mid-range phones that cost anywhere between $150-$400. If you remember, Helio’s latest P series chip is the Helio P20 that should be found inside the upcoming Meizu X smartphone.

RELATED: First Helio P20 6GB RAM Smartphone, Umi Plus E Available At $199.99 Today

Like some of you may have already noticed, it is said that MediaTek will skip a few numbers in naming its new P-series chip (so likely no Helio P30) and jump directly to Helio P35. This could be because the new mid-range chip is expected to come with some great specs, very similar to the flagship Helio x30.

The weibo post which revealed this info has even given a picture comparing the specs of the Helio X30 with Helio P35 and Snapdragon 835. We can see that Helio P35 and Helio X30 have the same 10 core architecture (2 x Cortex A73 + 4 x Cortex A53 + 4 X Cortex A35), however, the clock speed is a bit lower than the X series chipset. Another major difference should be in the GPU department, wherein the P35 is said to feature Mali-G71 MP3 GPU instead of the PowerVR graphics on the X30. Other rumored features of the P35 include dual channel LPDDR4x memory and 1080p display resolution support.

The user further said that the Helio P35 is expected to debut in the third quarter of next year and will be popular among 1000 Yuan mid-rangers ($150-$300 phones) because of its super-efficient 10nm manufacturing node.

So, what do you think, will 2017 finally be the year when MediaTek chipsets are good enough to take on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon series?

The post MediaTek’s Helio P35 Using 10nm Manufacturing Node Could Power Mid-Rangers Next Year appeared first on Gizmochina.

A few hours ago, Meizu officially confirmed that it will hold a launch event on November 30. While the company failed to give out a specific device name, media started to speculate that we could meet the rumored Meizu M5 Note at the event. But it looks like, Meizu could release a mystery device at the Nov. 30 event, most likely called as the Meizu X.

Recently, a couple of images showing off the box of the Meizu X popped up on the social networking website Weibo, revealing the name of the device. The leakster further said that this particular model will be announced on November 30.

Further, a screenshot has also popped up online, which shows Meizu’s VP, Li Nan kind of confirming the name of the upcoming device — Meizu X, adding that more details will be announced tomorrow.

Given that this will be a new product lineup, we can expect some great specs on board. The tagline “Make Helio Great Again” on the invite confirms that the phone will be using a new Helio chipset and there are two possible options, the Helio P20 and the Helio X30. It’s too early for Helio X30 to release in the market, which means, the Meizu X should most likely feature Helio P20 chipset.

To recap, the Helio P20 features 8 x Cortex A53 cores clocked up to 2.3GHz with Mali-T880MP2 GPU and Cat.6 LTE support with dual-carrier aggregation. Performance wise, don’t expect too much improvement, but efficiency should be better since it is built on 16nm process as compared to Helio x20’s 20nm manufacturing node.

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Mediatek announced the next generation Helio X30 chipset a couple of weeks back. We also got some important details about the upcoming chipset like its architecture and GPU. Now, Taiwanese media seems to have more details on the new Helio X30 and X35 chipset.

Like expected, the Helio X30 chipset is said to be manufactured on TSMC’s 10nm process. Considering that the Helio X20 was built on 20nm process, this is a much-needed upgrade for the new age chip. It is said that MediaTek first planned on using TSMC’s 16nm manufacturing node for its new chips, but after considering the stiff competition from Qualcomm’s Snapdragon range, it decided to use the much more advanced and efficient 10nm process.

It is also said that the production and design of the new chip is on schedule and the chip should enter mass production sometime by the end of this year / early 2017. So, if you were expecting to meet this new Cortex A73 Artemis powered chipset, then your wait will easily extend to mid-2017.

As for the Helio X35, like this year, expect the difference to be in the maximum frequency. According to the company, the Helio X30 will come with 2 x Cortex A73 Artemis cores clocked at 2.8GHz, 4 x Cortex A53 cores clocked at 2.2GHz and 4 x Cortex A35 Cores clocked at 2.0 GHz. Even the GPU is upgraded, now using PowerVR 7XT quad-core GPU chip. Helio X35 should use the same architecture but clocked at a higher frequency. Now, considering that Helio X30 is already clocked at 2.8GHz, can we expect 3GHz on the X35? Also, it will be built on the same efficient 10nm process as the Helio X30.

There’s still a lot of time for the official launch of an Helio X30 powered smartphone, and things might change to a certain extent during this period. So, stay tuned to gizmochina as more details about these upcoming chips emerge in the next few months.

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Qualcomm has always taken the lead in chip shipment in the Chinese mainland market, but analyst Pan Jiutang posted on his Weibo page that for the second quarter of this year Mediatek has claimed the top spot thanks to the success of the Helio series (save for the weak performance of the Helio  P20 which has  cost them OPPO and Vivo’s order) and more sales from online and offline brands.

But the increase in shipments is not being celebrated as the company’s gross margin has dropped to its lowest level (35%) in a decade. The company is still facing issues with regards to performance, process, and average selling price. They are also still dealing with supply issues which will still show up in the second half of the year.

RELATED: Mediatek’s COO Confirms Helio X30 Specs

Mediatek also needs to make sure they have a major breakthrough in the high-end market come 2017 or else that share of the market will be fully owned by Qualcomm.

The post Mediatek’s 4G Chips Shipments Increases, But It’s Not All Good News appeared first on Gizmochina.

LeEco has managed to take on competitors with aggressively priced Le 2 mid-range smartphone. However, there’s another slightly powerful model in the company’s Le lineup that was announced in April, namely the Le 2 Pro. This particular model comes with an even faster processor, the Helio X25 @ 2.5GHz at a very cheap price tag. Considering the same chip powers flagships such as the Meizu Pro 6 which costs a lot more, the Le 2 Pro with its powerful specifications is definitely worth checking out.

Now, the Le 2 Pro model with Helio X25 on board is available on OPPOMART for $249. The one listed as default is the Helio X20 powered model, so make sure you select Helio X25 powered model from the drop down menu.

As for the other specs of the Le 2 Pro, it comes with 4GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. At the back, you get a powerful 21MP Sony IMX230 sensor while up front, there’s an 8MP shooter. The display remains the same, a 5.5-inch panel with 1080p resolution. Other features include USB TYpe-C, VoLTE and 3000mAh battery.

Remember that there’s no 3.5mm headphone jack on board, so be ready to use USB Type-C headphones on the device.

The post LeEco Le 2 Pro With Helio X25 Now Available On OPPOMART appeared first on Gizmochina.

Looks like a new smartphone will soon roll out from Coolpad because the device was spotted today on GFXBench listed as Coolpad A9S-9. That is not the big news though, the big news is that in the device, we’ll get to feel the all new, latest MediaTek Helio P20 processor announced by MediaTek early this year as the latest in the P series of its processors.

MediaTek unveiled the Helio P20 processor as a successor to last year’s Helio P10 spec and also announced that the Helio P20 should be expected in devices in the second half of 2016.

On first sight of the specs, you might confuse the P20 with the Helio X20 that uses a deca-core design, but the difference is the P20 is an octa-core product. The one listed as being on the CoolPad A9S-9 is listed as a 2.3GHz octa-core MT6757 processor which is the specs of the Helio P20.

MediaTek upgraded the frequency of the processor on the Helio P20 from 2GHz found on the Helio 10 to 2.3GHz and the graphics processing unit (GPU) from Mali-T860 MP2 700MHz to Mali-T880 MP2 900MHz. These are the two major overhauls on the P20 from P10, other aspects of the upgrade are really not obvious.

Since it packs a more powerful GPU and more frequency band, the Helio P20 is expected to offer a more seamless and faster performance than the P10, which isn’t a bad one either.

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Smartphone companies have multiple lineups targeted at different price segments. Recently, 360 Mobiles, formerly known as QiKu unveiled the 360 F4 smartphone which was a low cost device aimed to compete with the likes of Redmi 3 Pro. Now, the company has started teasing its next smartphone in the works, namely the 360 N4. And guess what, this is going to be a mid-range handset with a Helio chipset inside.

The company had revealed earlier that there would be three different smartphone lineups under the brand, namely the F series which is low-end segment, the N series which is the mid-range segment and the Q series which will be the high-end segment. So, the new 360 N4 smartphone will lie in the mid-range segment.

The new teaser revealed today says Hello _20 chipset. The blank could either be the Helio X20 flagship chip or it could be Helio P20 chip. Given that the latter is not yet announced, I think it’s safe to assume that the new 360 N4 will come with Helio X20. Another reason to say this is because we have already seen a deca-core powered smartphone from the company in an earlier AnTuTu listing and this could be that device. Another possibility is that the teaser is actually saying “Hello 820”, which would mean that SD820 powers the device, but it seems unlikely at the moment.

Back in March, we had seen the QK1503-M02 model with Helio X20 under the hood. Other specs revealed by AnTuTu included 3GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, and a 1080p FHD screen with an unknown display size. At the back, the phone had a 13MP camera while up front, a 5MP shooter. It ran on Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS.

So, now, it could be time for 360 Mobiles to finally unveil this new mid-range smartphone. Release date is not yet known, but since the company has started teasing the device, expect to meet the device within this month.

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The company further added that Helio X20 overheating issues shouldn’t be a concern given that in the case of an increase in temperature, the chip will use only eight Cortex A53 based cores. The two Cortex A72 cores will be shut down. Mediatek said that the new Cortex A72 cores are quite energy efficient as well. The mass production of the chipset has already started and hence, we should be seeing the first X20 powered smartphones real soon.

To recap, Helio X20 is the world’s first 10-core chipset with a tri-cluster design. It features 2x Cortex-A72 @ 2.5GHz, 4x Cortex-A53 @ 2.0GHz and 4x Cortex-A53 @ 1.4GHz. The chip supports LPDDR3 RAM and Cat. 6 4G LTE networks.

The Helio X20 is an important chip for the company, which is probably why it was quick to refute claims about overheating. Remember last year, it was around the same time that rumors about Snapdragon 810 being super hot surfaced online. Even Qualcomm denied the rumors, but later it turned out to be true. But hopefully, since the chip uses the much more efficient Cortex A72 and A53 cores, we won’t have to see such an issue with Helio X20.

What do you think? Will the Helio X20 overheat?

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We knew that Mediatek was working on a new SoC in its recently unveiled Helio lineup. And today, the company has made the Helio X20 chipset official. Like expected the chip features a total of 10 cores with the world’s first tri-cluster design. This makes it an interesting chip, since it will be the first time we will be seeing such an architecture on a processor.

Inside, the company has used four power efficient Cortex A53 Cores clocked at 1.4GHz, four Cortex A53 Cores but clocked at a higher frequency 2.0Ghz and finally two extreme performance Cortex A72 Cores clocked at 2.5Ghz. The company has used a custom Interconnect IP called MediaTek Coherent System Interconnect (MCSI) for achieving a tri-cluster design.

The chip supports LTE Cat. 6, CDMA 2000 along with 802.11 ac dual band Wi-Fi. The power consumption has reduced as compared to Helio X10 and the company claims that the new chip consumes 30% less power during decoding and 40% less power while encoding videos.

As for the GPU, the Helio X20 will come with Mali T800 series GPU, although the exact GPU model has not yet been revealed. For memory, the chip comes with 2 x LPDDR3 Memory running at 933MHz.

The Helio X20 chipset is definitely an interesting offering from the company. We will have to wait and see how the chip with the world’s first tri-cluster design performs in real life as compared to other chips featuring big.LITTLE architecture.

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