The nice part about the smartphone market having nestled into a comfortable plateau? The phones a step below flagship start to look awfully good for the price! Today, we learned about the MediaTek Dimensity 8000 series, which includes the Dimensity 8100 and Dimensity 8000 system-on-chips, Qualcomm competitors that we’ll soon see in sub-flagship Android devices.
We already heard about MediaTek’s flagship system-on-chip, the Dimensity 9000, a few months ago — the Dimensity 8100 and Dimensity 8000 take some of that high-level power and put it in a more affordable package.
Details about the Dimensity 8100 had already leaked, prompting comparisons to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 system-on-chip. Looks like it’s a good comparison, now that the specs are official — the 8100 features four Arm Cortex-A78 cores offering speeds up to 2.8Ghz. The Dimensity 8000, on the other hand, has four Cortex-A78 cores with speeds up to 2.7GHz.
Graphics are handled by an Arm Mali-G610 partnered with MediaTek’s HyperEngine 5.0 for gaming optimization. With it, power efficiency is improved and unlocks up to 170 fps for the Dimensity 8100 and up to 140 fps for the 8000.
Unsurprisingly, both are equipped with 5G modems. The 8000 series promises to boost 5G performance by using 2CC carrier aggregation.
Both also feature the APU 580 AI chip, which will help power a lot of AI features, mostly when it comes to image processing — it’s the sort of thing that can look at your pictures as you take them, recognize what you’re shooting, and adjust settings accordingly. You can also expect it to do things like monitor frame rates and refresh rates and keep those synced while gaming.
That image processing will be bolstered by an image signal processor that can process 5 gigapixels per second, applying effects like HDR almost immediately. It’s the backbone of all the stuff that works in the blink of an eye these days, keeping your photos Instagram-ready right from the start! MediaTek has also integrated improved noise reduction and unblur tech to improve low-light captures.
Additionally, devices that will be powered by the Dimenisty 8000 series chips can accommodate cameras up to 200 megapixels and up to 4K 60fps HDR10+ recording, compared with support for up to 320 MP cameras in the flagship Dimensity 9000 system-on-chip. We’re not complaining either way.
Devices powered by MediaTek’s Dimensity 8000 series are expected by the first quarter of this year.