MediaTek has just announced two new Helio G series chipsets – Helio G96 and Helio G88. These SoCs bring minor upgrades over the Helio G95 and Helio G85 respectively. The new solutions are designed with a focus on advanced display and mobile photography capabilities.
MediaTek Helio G96 specifications
As you might have guessed, the Helio G96 is the more premium of the two. It features two Cortex-A76 CPU cores clocked at 2.05GHz and six power-efficient Cortex-A55 cores, which are likely operating at a maximum frequency of 2.0GHz. That’s the same CPU configuration as the Helio G95. However, in terms of GPU, the new chipset is a downgrade from the Mali-G76 MC4 to Mali-G57 MC2.
The 2133MHz LPDDR4X memory standard carries over unchanged but UFS 2.2 storage is an upgrade from UFS 2.1 that came before. There are upgrades in other areas as well. The Helio G96 supports up to 120Hz displays at a maximum of 1080p resolution on both LCD and AMOLED panels, without limitation in DDIC supply, C-phy or D-phy interface. The older solution is capped at a 90Hz refresh rate.
The new MediaTek processor also supports up to 108-megapixel cameras. That’s a major upgrade from 64-megapixel maximum camera resolution support in the Helio G95. Video capture still tops up at 4K resolution at 30 fps (frames per second) though.
Other notable changes include support for a faster Cat 13 LTE modem (downlink) and a newer Bluetooth 5.2 standard, up from Cat 12 and Bluetooth 5.0 respectively. The new chipset still features Wi-Fi 5 (a/b/g/n/ac).
Feature-wise, it supports dual 4G SIM and VoLTE and ViLTE services. MediaTek’s Intelligent Resource Management Engine, Networking Engine, and HyperEngine 2.0 Lite game technology are also part of the package.
MediaTek Helio G88 specifications
Though the Helio G88 arrives as a successor to the Helio G85, there aren’t many upgrades to talk about here. It’s the same CPU and GPU arrangement. So we are looking at two Cortex-A75 CPU cores clocked at 2.0GHz, six Cortex-A55 cores, and the Mali-G52 MC2 GPU which operates at the same 1GHz speed. The new chipset also retains EMMC 5.1 storage, 1800MHz LPDDR4x memory, Cat 7 LTE modem (downlink), Wi-Fi 5 (a/b/g/n/ac), and Bluetooth 5.0.
However, as mentioned earlier, it focuses on the display and camera departments. The refresh rate is still capped at 90Hz but it can now go up to 1080p resolution. The Helio G85 only offers a 60Hz refresh rate at 1080p, and a 90Hz refresh rate at 720p resolution.
In terms of camera, MediaTek is including support for up to 64-megapixel sensors in the new SoC. The older one only supported up to 48-megapixel cameras. Video capture is still capped at 1080p/60fps but it offers a hardware depth engine for dual-camera bokeh capture, a Camera Control Unit (CCU), and Electronic Image Stabilization (EIS). You also get Rolling Shutter Compensation (RSC) technologies. The Helio G88 boasts MediaTek’s HyperEngine 2.0 Lite game technology as well.
MediaTek has yet to reveal when the Helio G96 and Helio G88 will start shipping. But from the looks of it, we might soon see them inside affordable smartphones from several brands.