Ambitions lie in wait with the Dimensity 1050
The global chip shortage brought upheaval to the mobile sector and continues to rage on and allow MediaTek to claim a golden opportunity. IDC reported the company’s systems-on-chips present in an “over 50%” share of the Android market last year while the manufacturer itself says that’s a repeat performance from 2020. With rumors that Samsung might turn to outside help for a prominent smartphone release, the middle of 2022 is proving to be an exciting time for the Taiwanese firm. And, just announced, we’ve got a bunch of new silicon spanning the mid-range and they include the comapny’s first crack at millimeter wave 5G.
| MediaTek | Dimensity 1050 | Dimensity 930 |
| Fabrication | 6nm TSMC | |
| CPU | 2 x Cortex-A78 (2.5GHz) + 6 x A55 | 2 x A78 (2.2GHz) + 6 x A55 (2GHz) |
| GPU | Arm Mali-G610 MC3 | Imagination BXM-2-256 |
| Memory | Up to UFS3.1, 2 x LPDDR5 | |
| Featured connectivity | mmW 5G (4CC), Sub-6 5G (3CC), Wi-Fi 6E | Sub-6G 5G (2CC), LTE Cat. 15, Bluetooth 5.2 |
| Camera | Imagiq 760 ISP (108MP, HW acc. HDR for dual cameras) | 64MP, option for 108MP |
| Display | MiraVision 760 (low-power FHD+ @ 144Hz) | FHD+ 120Hz w/ HDR10+ |
If you live where brands like “5G+” or “5G Ultra Capacity” or even “5G Ultra Wideband” get bandied about, MediaTek hopes you’ll see a phone or two running the Dimensity 1050. It’s the first chipset in the firm’s portfolio to support millimeter wave 5G spectrum in the n257, n258, n260, and n261 bands. Execs say that their own end-to-end modem solution compares well to Qualcomm’s equivalent offering on peak transmission and even better on typical transmission and power consumption, band for band. And if it wasn’t already obvious, this new chip is squarely targeted toward American devices as carriers here tend to be more obsessed with millimeter wave technologies. Whether people actually use them (or are even able to) is another question, but that’s for the networks to answer.
MediaTek is notably supply chain-conscious with this round of releases. The Dimensity 1050 is getting a hand-me-down from the Dimensity 9000 with its quite-capable image and AI pipelines while the GPU comes from the 8000 series, though in a leaner config with only half of the six cores. The company is publicizing the also-new Dimensity 930 plus the Helio G99 which the North American market isn’t likely to see much of since it’s a 4G-only chip. All of these SoCs will be made with TSMC’s 6nm footprint — the company hopes to fulfill both inventory and performance iteration needs with this move, especially as product begins to move within the next six months.
MediaTek is also teasing Wi-Fi 7 compliance with its Filogic 380 solution for embedded devices and the Filogic 880 for dedicated networking products — think routers for your home or business. The latter features the capability for three bands of front-haul and two bands dedicated to back-haul traffic for peak local network speeds of up to 36Gbps. While we’ll be waiting a while yet for the 880, the 380 will help computers, smartphones, and all of your smart appliances connect to that powerful future network with more bandwidth dedicated to each device and a theoretical top throughput of 6.5Gbps. Expect integrations with products coming out in the front half of next year.
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