MediaTek aims for premium Chromebook market with its Kompanio 1200 chip in 2022

Zohaib Ahmed — Sat, 20 Nov 2021 07:22:33 +0000

MediaTek is on a roll currently and has announced a number of upcoming products for smartphones, IoT devices, and Windows laptops during its Executive Summit. And yesterday, the chipmaker held a brief session on its Chromebook and PC efforts where the MediaTek Kompanio 1200 chipset was showcased.

To recall, the Kompanio 1200 was announced last year with an MT8195 codename. While MTK had also announced that the MT8192 (now called the Kompanio 820) was coming in Q2, there wasn’t any particular date given for the MT8195. It was thus speculated that the chip will be going live in 2021. But that’s not going to be the case as it is now expected to be launched only next year.

Image: XDA Developers

The Kompanio 1200 is built on a 6nm process using Cortex-A78 (via XDA). MediaTek has aimed the offering at the premium Chromebook tier, which is not something done by any ARM vendor before. Intel still dominates that segment and ARM-based chipsets have only made it as far as budget Chromebooks to date.

Do note here that when MediaTek mentions premium, it’s talking about Chromebooks that cost over $400. The Kompanio 1200 will still be competing with the entry-level Core i3 from Intel but will aim to undercut it in the battery department – something that ARM-based chips have always been better at than their x86 counterparts.

The chipmaker also teased another future processor that will likely be going against Intel’s flagship i7 series of chips. Based on the company’s naming scheme, it may be called the Kompanio 2000.

As for the MediaTek Kompanio 1200, the launch date is expected to be early 2022, and as such, we could see it happen in CES that takes place in January.

MediaTek chips for Chromebooks Archives - Gizmochina

MediaTek aims for premium Chromebook market with its Kompanio 1200 chip in 2022