MediaTek has announced yet another 5G system-on-chip (SoC) for smartphones. The new, Dimensity 700 is a 7nm chipset aimed at entry-level 5G smartphones. It joins the Dimensity 1000, Dimensity 1000L, Dimensity 1000 Plus, Dimensity 1000C, Dimensity 820, Dimensity 800, Dimensity 800U, and the Dimensity 720 in the Taiwanese fabless semiconductor company’s Dimensity series of 5G-enabled smartphone chipsets. All of these are 7nm chipsets launched within the past 12 months.
MediaTek Dimensity 700 specifications
The new octa-core chipset has two Cortex-A76 cores running at up to 2.2GHz while the remaining six power-efficient Cortex-A55 cores are clocked at 2.0GHz. An ARM Mali-G57 MC2 GPU handles the graphics duties. It supports up to 12 GB of LPDDR4x RAM at 2133MHz and UFS 2.2 dual-lane storage with up to 1GB/s transfer speeds.
Since the Dimensity 700 is an entry-level chipset, it only supports up to 90Hz display refresh rates. In terms of display resolution, it can run Full HD+ (2520 x 1080) panels.
For photography, the new chipset can handle 48-megapixel or 64-megapixel cameras with support for features like AI-bokeh, AI-color, and AI-beauty. It offers hardware-based imaging accelerators such as multi-frame noise reduction for better low-light images with low noise.
There’s also a hardware depth engine for accurate, real-time bokeh in Portrait previews and pictures. The Dimensity 700 also offers hardware-level anti-distortion and facial detection features for enhanced photography and videography. The chipset supports 2K video recording and playback at 30fps.
The Dimensity 700 boasts features such as 5G carrier aggregation (2CC 5G-CA), Dual 5G SIM Dual Standby (DSDS), and VoNR (Voice over New Radio). 5G-CA (2CC) enables faster data transfers (up to 2.77 Gbps downlink speeds) and a seamless handover between two 5G towers. MediaTek says “competitor alternatives don’t include” this ability.
Other notable features include support for MediaTek 5G UltraSave power-saving technology, Wi-Fi 5, and Bluetooth 5.0. The chipset also offers multiple voice assistant support, including those from Google, Amazon, Baidu, Tencent, and Alibaba. Last but not least, it supports GPS, Glonass, BeiDou, Galileo, QZSS, and NavIC navigation systems.
It’s unclear when the first batch of Dimensity 700-powered devices would arrive in the market. MediaTek recently said that its 5G chips will be available globally from Q3 2020 but there hasn’t been much progress yet.
MediaTek unveils MT8195 and MT8192 SoCs for Chromebooks
In addition to the new entry-level, Dimensity 700 5G chipset for smartphones, MediaTek also unveiled two new chipsets for next-generation Chromebooks – the MT8195 and MT8192. The MT8195 is a more premium offering of the two, fabricated on TSMC’s 6nm process.
The chipset features four high-performance ARM Cortex-A78 cores and four power-efficient ARM Cortex-A55 cores. It integrates the company’s APU 3.0 that boasts up to 4 TOPS (trillion operations per second) of performance. A 5-core Mali-G57 GPU handles the graphics duties.
The MT8195 supports quad-channel LPDDR4X RAM, Dolby Vision, 7.1 surround sound audio, and AV1 hardware video accelerator. It can run up to three simultaneous displays.
The MT8192, on the other hand, is a 7nm chipset intended for more affordable Chromebooks. It features four ARM Cortex-A76 cores, which are two generations old now. It’s disappointing that MediaTek didn’t opt for the newer Cortex-A77 cores instead.
ARM has yet to launch a successor to the power-efficient Cortex-A55 cores, so they feature on this chipset as well. It also gets a slower APU in the form of APU 2.0, which tops up at 2.4 TOPS. However, it gets the same GPU as the MT8195, although it’s unclear if there’s any clock difference.
The MT8192 can run 1440p displays at 60Hz or Full HD+ displays at 120 Hz, with support for two Full HD displays simultaneously. It also supports LPDDR4X RAM and UFS 2.1 storage. Both chipsets offer 4K HDR video playback and PCIe Gen 3 and UBS 3.2 Gen 1 connectivity.
MediaTek says the MT8192 SoC will start making its way into Chromebooks in the second quarter of next year. The company has yet to specify when Chromebooks powered by the MT8195 will arrive in the market.