Open Thread: MediaTek vs Qualcomm Snapdragon


MediaTek vs Qualcomm

As you guys may already know, Taiwan’s MediaTek are working on the upcoming X30 series of chipsets. The next MediaTek flagship CPU, which is to be built under the 10nm architecture, will go head on with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 830, also rumored to be built with a 10nm architecture.

MediaTek vs Qualcomm Snapdragon

Knowing this, we decided to ask you guys: what are your thoughts?

We all know MediaTek and Qualcomm are kings not only in the Chinese smartphone market, but also amongst other budget phone makers.

Gizchina News of the week


Just take a look at the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 which came with a MediaTek Helio X10, soon followed by a Pro version sporting a Qualcomm Snapdragon 650.

I hope we can all agree there isn’t a “best” CPU, as it all depends on a ton of different factors: performance, power efficiency, heating problems and price, the latter being very important especially on cheaper devices.

But we know you guys will find reasons to prefer one over another, thus we decided to create an Open Thread, where you can write your ideas and opinions freely without going off topic, not that it has ever stopped you before!

Now tell us: what’s your favorite CPU maker and why? What processor does your phone run on?

Previous Details of up to 4 Xiaomi Mi Note 2 emerge
Next 90,000 Redmi 3s Prime units sold in 8 minutes: Xiaomi India

168 Comments

  1. rimakus
    August 10, 2016

    Qualcomm, still have mi2s with SD 600 and bought wife redmi 3S with SD 430 just because GPS works as it should on them. Had one with low range mediatek and had to give it back due to performance issues and issues with loosing GPS signal constantly.

  2. SPLEND1D
    August 10, 2016

    intel ftw XD

  3. Shriram G
    August 10, 2016

    Qualcomm. Cuz quality and reliability. 🙂

  4. Roberto
    August 10, 2016

    Only Mediatek forever Helio X25

  5. Zdeněk Anděl
    August 10, 2016

    Any.
    I had phones with qualcomm and MTK too.
    I got LeEco Le 2 with Helio x20 bcuz I wanted to try them multiple core clusters and so far it is pretty good for battery life.

  6. MattD
    August 10, 2016

    Your previous article about redmi pro started a flame war, so you may want an encore, but maybe that’s trying a little too hard, pierre? We’ve been discussing about this for so long it doesn’t even make sense anymore to argue even further, more so even rocks should know by now that mediatek is behind on many things and it’s ok with it

    • MaxPower
      August 10, 2016

      Click bait

      • Yeti hand
        August 10, 2016

        hello you’re right sensei, as usual!!

        • MaxPower
          August 10, 2016

          Hey, I haven’t seen you in a long time. Summer is not a good season for Yeti? 🙂

          • Yeti hand
            August 14, 2016

            Nope too hot!!

      • MattD
        August 10, 2016

        Yup!

  7. NextHype
    August 10, 2016

    Qualcomm > Mediatek
    Android > Iphone
    Hillary > Trump

    Everything’s said.

  8. vasras
    August 10, 2016

    Snapdragon is bad for battery life (vs. Exynos). S7 is a good example of this.SD is full of security holes by Qualcomm (Quadrooter, CVE-2016-0819,CVE-2016-0805), which get patched slow (first by QC then by Google, then by device mfgs).
    SD is really good in graphics (Exynos and Mediateks not so). So if you’re thinking top-end VR ready handsets, it’s QC SD.
    Everything has pros and cons.

    • Lazar Prodanovic
      August 10, 2016

      Patch is there for quite some time.
      https://www.codeaurora.org/invalid-path-check-ashmem-memory-file-cve-2016-5340
      I hope that you know that every newer X86 CISC procesor have a similar problem & it’s a hardware design flow still no one is making much fuss about it.
      We know about security britches & in generally problems regarding msm software builds only because it’s OPEN SOURCED Code Aurora. On the other hand be certain that their is much more of it on closed source property binary blobs from other manufacturers that doesn’t go open. So if you think that things you don’t see can’t hurt you think again I am certain you are capable at least so much.
      Second regard is that putting only Mammut cores on S820 & in configuration as they are is far cry from good design. Actually their is no good design in a quiet long time concerning whole industry.

  9. Sirus Valencia
    August 10, 2016

    Qualcomm > Exynos > MediaTek

  10. Venci
    August 10, 2016

    Qualcomm for me makes the better cpus, but i awlays buy mediatek ones, cos of the price.

  11. Rich Hafley
    August 10, 2016

    Qualcomm, only because they release more documentation. It is easier to find good custom ROMs for phones with QC soc.

  12. Ondra Cutak
    August 10, 2016

    Qualcomm because of their GPU power

  13. Wolvie
    August 10, 2016

    Qualcomm (only 82x series & 65x series) as somehow it is more stable and lesser software problem than mediatek SOC.

    Qualcomm android update, support and bug fixes also much better than mediatek

  14. Mehmet Karatas
    August 10, 2016

    Qualcomm because security reasons, custom roms (MediaTek phones get not so much updates as qc) and GPS (because im pizzataxidriver), okay mediateks neq Helio series are too well but absolutely not so advanced as qcs snapdragon in things like GPU and other minimal characteristics. but everyone thinks differently =)

  15. Muhammad Yasir
    August 10, 2016

    Fanbois of either company starting fights in 3..2… oh it’s already begun !

    • kakek
      August 10, 2016

      Actually, I see very little fanboyism in this thread. Most posts have rational arguments about why each is better or worse, taking in account caracteristics that are shared by most (if not all) products of each brand and brand politics.

      Why do you troll ?

      • Muhammad Yasir
        August 11, 2016

        i just love the fun and slightly trashy spirit of these forums…

        THATS what keeps it alive ! how else will these places light up and be attractive without that slight sense of fun and some trolling 😀

    • saur
      August 11, 2016

      may be if this was AMD vs Intel or Nvidia thread, that might be something worth reading.

      • Muhammad Yasir
        August 11, 2016

        MTK vs QC is no different … they’re basically the same thing when it comes to fan boy bitch fights 😀

  16. Muhammad Yasir
    August 10, 2016

    i have a Nokia 105 … do i need to mention what Processor my phone runs on ?

    • Lazar Prodanovic
      August 10, 2016

      ARM V5 why do you ask?

      • Muhammad Yasir
        August 11, 2016

        damn bro…

        • Lazar Prodanovic
          August 11, 2016

          Just teasing you. ??

          • Muhammad Yasir
            August 11, 2016

            haha … i know bro…

            thanks for adding to my knowledge tho :p (was always curious what powered the tiny bar phones 😀 )

            • Lazar Prodanovic
              August 11, 2016

              Well only last generations did see ARM V5, V6 most of older future phones actually worked on V4, V3. With V7 starts A series. Check the ARM CPU history. ??

  17. realjjj
    August 10, 2016

    Both are just corporations , it’s idiotic to have preferences for a brand,in any area.
    They both have lots of products and every cycle each wins some,loses some.
    Excluding Spreadtrum is not quite fair either, they are there too.Only 3 are left so lets not make it just 2.
    If you compare facts , MTK is catching up with Qulacomm in smartphone SoC units as Qualcomm has been losing quite a lot of share in the last 2 years since MTK started to sell LTE. Not that it matters much to Qualcomm since the bulk of their profits is from patent trolling.
    Next year X30 might be good enough for MTK to attack, for the first time, the very high end. I kinda doubt that it’s there, since they might be using A72 and Qualcomm is likely to be using a slightly custom A73. if x30 beats Qualcomm that would put a lot of pressure on them since,in a segment where they have no competition today, they are used to get payed very well. Not optimistic about X30 though and they might need another try in 2018 to take the lead in high end. Ofc that doesn’t mean that X30 won’t have great perf, just that maybe it won’t be the fastest. Mediatek should take some risks in high end at this point, go for more advanced packaging, maybe xpoint. The safest way to win is with a big lead.
    So MTK is catching up in units and remains to be seen if they can take the lead next year but in revenue they are still behind and to start catching up in revenue they need to do more in higher end.
    Outside phones MTK keeps advancing.They just won the wifi in the new Xbox, replacing Marvell. A week or so ago the Polar M600 watch with MT2601 launched and it’s using Android Wear,might be the first Android Wear with a MTK chip.

    Qualcomm is focused too much on 5G and patents. All they care about is to charge even more for patents when 5G arrives,, kill wifi and enable carriers to better milk the consumer.Too much focus on that might lead to too little focus on actual products.

    Spreadtrum is fine in low end and it will take time for them to start gaining share in mid and high but they won’t give up.

    https://community.cadence.com/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-01-06/Screen-Shot-2016_2D00_07_2D00_27-at-8.22.56-AM.jpg

    • Lazar Prodanovic
      August 10, 2016

      X30 is mix of a bad design & bad IP decisions and I am certain you are aware of that much. I doubt that Qualcomm will make anything much more smarter regarding upcoming designs. Sometimes I wonder culd a trained monkey do a better job then heads of “most leading” semiconductor corps.

      You forgot HiSilicon & Samsung even they don’t sell much costumer products out of main head firm.

      Spedtrum actually culd rise a lot & they did a couple of smart moves so far as strong partner relationship with CEVA. We will see. At the end me by some of those monkeys I mentioned before reads what we have to say hire regarding design and devote actual design of future products based upon it.

      • realjjj
        August 10, 2016

        I don’t have full specs for x30 so can’t really say what it will be. Mediatek is a giant by now but they are still catching up and what’s important for them is to move forward. They might not take the lead with x30 but they are getting closer and that’s good for them and for us. Qualcomm alone in the high end is not a good thing for consumers.
        I did not forget Hisilicon and Samsung , ignored them only because nobody else really uses them yet. If that changes, it would be good. Both are very large enterprises and getting better at making phone SoCs.

        Spreadtrum can rise because they have no share above low end but their first 16FF design is yet to hit devices and remains to be seen if they got it right. They will invest and try to rise but takes time.
        Ceva related, Rockchip just signed up for the CEVA-XM4 DSP.

        • Lazar Prodanovic
          August 10, 2016

          I know about Rockchip but it’s still previous gen unfortunately.
          Spedtrum needs to develop self 4G LTE competitive cellular radio thats why the CEVA partnership is so important. I didn’t mention Rockchip nor others that never showed intention of developing nor even using as IP celular radio purposely. I had to mention Samsung as it’s second largest high integrated circuits manufacturer in the world (& gaining towards Intel) not with their SoC’s but pretty much with everything else. I am not interested in highest performance SoC’s nor do I think x30 will be a rather good design I am interested in solid mid range ones but turned toward real usage needs & optimized for all the needs someone would perform with them. After all this is most important segment & one where biggest sails actually is.

          • realjjj
            August 10, 2016

            You are ignoring the financial part and that’s what drives everything in this world. reasonable choices don’t give you marketing points and you don’t sell without that.
            Look at how many people think Mediatek is weak in GPU.when they aren’t that really. If you compare SoCs that compete in the same segment, they aren’t behind. People think they are weak because they are yet to go for the high end and an oversized GPU clocked too high.

            When competing in the marketplace you can’t clock an A73 at 1.8GHz and have the competition go to 2.8GHz, you go bankrupt if you do.Would be good if regulators would step in and force more disclosure on max clocks and sustainable clocks but without that folks will keep pushing clocks too high even if makes the product worse.

            In every segment , each player tries to outfox the other guy. The biggest volumes are in low end not in mid range but every segment is important to different types of users.

            One could likely do dual A73 on 28nm at 2GHz and with 1MB L2$ it should be some 6mm2 if optimized for area. Back that up with 4xA53, add some w/e GPU and it could be rather cheap. W/e GPU because not that many users play demanding mobile games. That could be done in 100$ phones or even bellow as such a SoC on 16FFC with the A73 at higher clocks could be cheap enough for 100$ China phones.

            In anything bellow high end, the focus has to be on doing a bit more than the other guy (in areas where the consumer can see the difference), time to market and reducing costs. The consumer sees CPU perf GPU perf and that’s about it. When it comes to camera perf the ISP makes a difference but consumers look at most at the sensor. Dealing with phone makers is a bit more complex ofc.

            Ok that was too long and a bit all over the place but too lazy to edit. The point is that reasonable products are almost impossible to make when the consumer can’t see that your choices are reasonable. The absolute need for cost reductions makes it even harder.

            • Lazar Prodanovic
              August 10, 2016

              First I am not neglecting anything especially not financial part. Secondly put from already tiped out parts (POP) developing & producing a SoC on FinFET lithographic proces is not much considerably pricier. Second thing is if you utilize all 4 A73s at 1.8GHz vs two of them at 2.8GHz they will be able to do equal amount of job or quad one would be a even bit ahead. Now let’s say they are made on 10 nm FinFET TSMC & that two at 2.8 will consume 1500mV wile quad at 1.8 will consume half of that. I know that most of apps use only two CPUs I also know that most of apps don’t really need all that power. Now considered that A73 at 1.8GHz is equivalent to A53 at 3.15GHz (by my more modest performance ratio of A73s compared to actual Arm’s projections [me 175% ARM 190%]). Don’t you think that’s enough? Most people find A53s at 2GHz satisfactionary. At the end I must ask why do you think that SoC that would actually provide best user experience would fail? MTK dose put weaker GPU’s but purposely because they take largest part of die size. That is their way to say we made a fantastic products that is equal to concurrent one & we are selling it much cheaper. I didn’t go unrealistic with neither the size nor cost for a GPU in that sketch of SoC of mine. GPU’s need to advance along with mobile gaming but along user experience wile doing so should go forward. So I actually proposed a GPU that would cost same amount as current one used on Kirins 950,955 & X20 that would be equal performing but would use half the power wile doing so. That is enough for enjoyable experience on FHD display I didn’t go for 8 or 13 clusters & 2K, 4K displays nor VR as I think that’s still not possible wile retaining desirable user experience (not even for QC). It makes a lot of differences if you can game 2.5h or 4h on one battery charger.
              Take a look at power efficiency diagrams presented by ARM for the A73s. You will see that they are a bit more efficient than A9s. Now try to remember some of very famous A9 SoC’s that didn’t had any litle clusters to back them up like for instance Exunos from original S3 (first quad core ever) or Panda bords. So you see A73 can go self stand without A53s or A35s especially on FinFET. I know ARM originally promoted idea of a dual A73 & quad A53 clusters but it’s actually wrong & far worser that quad A73 alone. Now let’s also consider how an A73 at 400MHz will consume less power than A53 at 700MHz at same production process & this is enough for smooth scrolling. It will also consume even lesser at 1GHz vs A53 at 1.75 GHz & this is enough for almost anything. So you don’t need a big litle for anything anymore you see.

              Actuality no one tried to make anything that would really be orientated towards consumers in a very long time now & opposite to you I actually think it would be embraced very good from both costumers & market as to hell we really need something like that. As much as I know most part of the market share still belongs to mid segment in almost any traditional or less traditional market segment like for instance desktop CPUs or GPU’s, top & bottom are much smaller & flatter. I don’t see why would it be any different in SoC market.

            • realjjj
              August 10, 2016

              Consumers will chose higher clocks over lower power.
              Consumers whine about battery life and then they go buy thin phones with small batteries on looks. Consumers are not rational and informed, they should be but they aren’t. Apple has only 2 cores and most people think they are “the fastest” just because they lead in single threaded perf- this is very relevant in the 2 vs 4 cores convo.Even review sites can’t compare Kryo with A72, they think Kryo is faster and better just because the total Geekbench score is higher and that’s without even factoring in power.

              PPA still matters. In phones you have a certain TDP and there is no need to go bellow it by a lot just to increase efficiency,thus, as long as under that TDP limit, the focus is on perf and area. As long as the battery lasts for an entire day, it’s fine as people got used to that.

              In high end there is more flexibility but the lower you go, the higher the focus on area.

              As for best user experience, best value , most marketable, those are all different things. And that was the point Best value would be most perf in areas that matter per cost. Best user experience would be best perf in all areas,no matter the costs. Sufficient user experience would be a very different matter and is subjective. Most marketable would be about TAM in $ and market share.

              As for my personal preference, at this stage i wouldn’t be too demanding as A72 is plenty fast and if i game i’ll do it on PC, don’t have time to get bored enough to game on mobile.For battery life , if i could chose i would prefer fast charging and removable battery and ,just in case, solar cells on the back. A screen with no upper and lower bezels like the newly announced JDI would be nice too.http://www.j-display.com/english/news/2016/20160809.html That’s what i would need today but there can be differences between what one needs and wants. Maybe i could want fantastic perf at 0$ 😀

              If i had to make a SoC for a certain segment, my needs and wants would have zero relevance as i would need to make something i can sell. If you want something that sells,in high end one needs to win in benchmarks. Bellow that you need to outfox the other guy,offer a bit more for a bit less and hopefully do it a bit faster.

              I don’t want to say that a certain config would be the best because different people want different things. For some A53 is great, some want the very fastest. In general consumers try to get the most they can get so more is better as long as it fits in their budget.Not really in the mood for it either tbh.

            • Lazar Prodanovic
              August 11, 2016

              Well you do have imagined a whole phone for that matter.
              Teling someone how battery can last whole day is crazy, SOT time & power consumption in sleep state /h is relevant. Well we can’t talk about bang for $ & continue with A72s as they take 3x the space of A53…
              I on the other hand would opted for Amoled & 5.2″ one FHD with thin enough bezels. Market met phones already that came with SoC that would approximately cost as the one I imagined & with pretty good build & everything else for $150 (Mi4c with S808) on days when resellers wanted to get rid of them so it’s actually possible not that anyone with a new product would go with price like that. One think I give you a credit is a removable battery as I also like & prefer them. Sufficient user experience is not subjective category ist our physical limitation to spot something so it’s a blink of an eye timing.

            • realjjj
              August 11, 2016

              AMOLED means Pentile and a 720p experience so hell NO.
              And the point of that JDI is no lower and upper bezels, enabling a greater screen to body ratio,not side bezels.

            • Lazar Prodanovic
              August 11, 2016

              Even with Pentile matrix that also means 2/3 of nominal resolution not 1/5 but it also means very high contrast, real black, deeper colors & at least 20% smaller power consumption. I don’t know how to brake it to you but Leds even with full HDR (1000 nits & dynamic processing) standard aren’t there yet in some arias they come close like that but still not the same (including all known matrix & quantum dot’s…). Don’t have anything against JDI Lcd’s. When you huck up once to Amoled their is hardly a way back.

  18. Lazar Prodanovic
    August 10, 2016

    Actually I don’t like neither of them. I did like Texas Instruments their Open Source tribute is even today year after they stepped down from consumer SoC business far greater than anyone ever achieved. For example their 4 years old SoC’s have still most of the driver’s up streame & up to date Linux compatibility which is something I can not say for anyone else including even newest products they sell. Second choice whose Broadcom after Texas Instruments stepped down for their more intelligent dressing gain in open source community they got with popularity of cheap ARM compute bords like Raspberry Pi & also for the first ever (even) today known (decoded) cellular modem functionality. So they did also pushed Open Source boundaries forward but it didn’t last long. Both of them ware pushed out of the business by Qualcomm uncompetitive practices. Between Qualcomm & MTK I chose Qualcomm as it’s last open source stock not because I love them. Design wise they are both far from anything good all do Qualcomm is most of the time better.

    • Fox Hunter
      August 10, 2016

      There’s Samsung and Huawei, and i heard Xiaomi was gonna make their own chips.

  19. rimakus
    August 10, 2016

    Qualcomm, still have mi2s with SD 600 and bought wife redmi 3S with SD 430 just because GPS works as it should on them. Had one with low range mediatek and had to give it back due to performance issues and issues with loosing GPS signal constantly.

  20. davos
    August 10, 2016

    Had a 6595 phone. Will never buy a MediaTek phone again.

    • kakek
      August 10, 2016

      Care to elaborate?

      • MattD
        August 10, 2016

        There were like 2 6595 phones: from the way he talks, it could be the zopo… So, understandable ?

        • davos
          August 10, 2016

          From the way you talk – with a casual “like” thrown in, and an attempted (but failed) sarcasm, it’s quite apparent that you don’t know much about manufacturers and what they put in their devices. Here’s an incomplete list of phones which housed the 6595 SoC, “like” a lot more than just 2:

          Meizu MX4
          Meizu M1 Note
          Coolpad X7
          Coolpad Grand 5
          Jiayu S3
          Lenovo Vibe X2
          Lenovo A936
          Alcatel Idol Series (1 top-end variant, released later)

          Of course, I’ve left out the brand you mentioned. Never really heard of them.

          • CherryPicked
            August 10, 2016

            Good list!

            I think HTC One M9+ was also available (albeit for a limited time) with the 6595T (Turbo) version. It wasn’t widespread like the X10 version, but still.

          • MattD
            August 10, 2016

            I won’t even start to say what kind of prick you are, just pointing out that more of the phones you mentioned did NOT have the 6595, so I’m assuming you’re mostly a troll. Make your researches before calling out others (in a bad way) for “not knowing much”… Probably I don’t know “much” indeed, but I’m not attacking anyone out of the blue for literally nothing

            • davos
              August 10, 2016

              — “I won’t even start to say what kind of prick you are” —
              Pot calling the kettle black, dickhead.

              I’m assuming you’re entirely (not mostly) a miserable dickhead and a troll rolled into one, going by how you don’t like the taste of your own medicine. Review your idiotic responses first before expecting courtesy and polite dialog from others. I didn’t post here for someone to throw sarcasm around, or guess which phone I might or might not have owned. Could have asked, instead of judging “from the way he talks”.

              Freakin’ pimp.

            • MattD
              August 11, 2016

              Dude, you funny ? hope you have better luck with your next troll, this one has potential (you know, someone could have said “that chip won antutu top 10” and that could have been an aperture to talk back and such), but you still have to work about it… The “zopo is an offense” line was hilarious af, I must say ?

          • kakek
            August 11, 2016

            There’s like (wink wink ) a hundred chinese brand, some of them being merely a rebrand of others. I think it’s pretty much impossible to know all of them. Zopo was much more relevant 3 years ago. They’ve lost a lot of wind since then.

          • Bruno
            August 11, 2016

            Jiayu S3 has MTK 6752 and I am completely satisfied with the phone.
            I have it for almost 2,5 years and it still worka flawlessy!
            (Truth is we god great developers and MM mods like CyanogenMod so it cannot be bad)

            • Lazar Prodanovic
              August 11, 2016

              He probably ment S4…

      • davos
        August 10, 2016

        No, not worth the effort and argument that will ensue.

        • kakek
          August 11, 2016

          Then your post is useless, to this other wise non-troll thread.

  21. Guaire
    August 10, 2016

    Qualcomm gonna be peerless again at ~2000 yuan flagship market and X30 will only find a place at ~1000 yuan budget phablets if they are smart enough IMO.

    If X30 meant to be a true high-end SoC it still would have better a GPU and a quad A73 cluster or maybe custom A73 made by ARM.

    If it meant to be more budget friendly option to true flagship chips, 10nm doesn’t make sense hence its more expensive manufacturing process. And quad A53 cluster doesn’t make sense anyway hence dual A73 die area is equivalent to quad A53, moreover smaller and more efficient A35 cores is very close to A53 performance wise.

    22nm FD-SOI would be perfect for it with its 14/16nm FinFET low power performance at 28nm cost IMO.

  22. SPLEND1D
    August 10, 2016

    intel ftw XD

  23. Shriram
    August 10, 2016

    Qualcomm. Cuz quality and reliability. 🙂

  24. Roberto
    August 10, 2016

    Only Mediatek forever Helio X25

  25. Lazar Prodanovic
    August 10, 2016

    This is my idea of costumer orientated ideal mid range SoC for upcoming generation.
    It should be mostly based on already finished & ready to be used licensable main building blocks from ARM and in a POP form to cut both time and cost to market.
    As follows: A Quad cluster A73 main & only general purpose CPU cluster clocked reasonably at 1.8Ghz top based on 10 nm FinFET TSMC production process & managed good with typical use frequency restrictions guvernere for usually usage scenarios (even if it hurts synthetic performance a bit). A dual A35 cluster clocked inside very restrictive margins that are usual for high grade microcontroller units in embedded industry (around 400Mhz) that should be used for general less demanding tasks, offloading of basic tasks from big cores such are storage control, all general purpose tasks in screen off mode (notifications & cetera) & cetera. The A35 cluster should be most of time active one so it should be as power efficient as possible. A Quad cluster ARM MALI G71 T860 – T880 successor clocked lower at about 550MHz so that it can match the performance of currently used same configured contraparts wile using only half of needed energy (manufacturing and design advantages combined) & that would represent a rather good performance/user experience lv on FHD panels. A DSP suitable for most of tasks (media, deep learning, image processing & other parallel compute ones). Any one from last gen licensable IP’s from any of: Synopsis, CEVA or Tensilica all do compared to each other all of them have advantages & disadvantages I would give a go to a first one actually available & ready for a TSMC 10 nm FinFET proces as a POP IP off course. All that with a good not cheap interconnect as new & now competition ARM one & of course paired with good advanced cellular radio.

    For me this represent the best at the moment possible real world & real usage scenario SoC design that doesn’t brake a cost limits & should stay in margins of current generation of good mid range ones as S650 or X20 wile it would be a very beneficial to real users & real world usage scenarios, it wouldn’t brick any synthetic top results of performance benchmarks from today ones but would save a lot of energy and make user experience in most & every field much better (battery, life, heat, real workloads, gaming experience, vision & cetera). This is how it should look from pure designer perspective without any idiotic marketing aspect cost/performance/power consumption optimized.

    Of course I don’t make them so this is just my pair of shoes regarding the topic.

  26. newphoenix
    August 10, 2016

    What is the aim of this political article? most of the users didn’t used phones with phones with Soc of Mediatek and Qualcomm, and even if there is users that did was the Soc in the same category? so this open thread not valid. Sorry.

  27. Zdeněk Anděl
    August 10, 2016

    Any.
    I had phones with qualcomm and MTK too.
    I got LeEco Le 2 with Helio x20 bcuz I wanted to try them multiple core clusters and so far it is pretty good for battery life.

  28. Marius Cirsta
    August 10, 2016

    Well for me it’s simple. Mediatek SOC phones are usually cheaper and Mediatek also builds stuff with better CPU and not so great GPU which is great for me because I never play games.

  29. MattD
    August 10, 2016

    Your previous article about redmi pro started a flame war, so you may want an encore, but maybe that’s trying a little too hard, pierre? We’ve been discussing about this for so long it doesn’t even make sense anymore to argue even further, more so even rocks should know by now that mediatek is behind on many things and it’s ok with it

    • MaxPower
      August 10, 2016

      Click bait

    • Yeti hand
      August 10, 2016

      hello you’re right sensei, as usual!!

    • MattD
      August 10, 2016

      Yup!

    • MaxPower
      August 10, 2016

      Hey, I haven’t seen you in a long time. Summer is not a good season for Yeti? 🙂

    • Yeti hand
      August 14, 2016

      Nope too hot!!

  30. NextHype
    August 10, 2016

    Qualcomm > Mediatek
    Android > Iphone
    Hillary > Trump

    Everything’s said.

  31. vasras
    August 10, 2016

    Snapdragon is bad for battery life (vs. Exynos). S7 is a good example of this.SD is full of security holes by Qualcomm (Quadrooter, CVE-2016-0819,CVE-2016-0805), which get patched slow (first by QC then by Google, then by device mfgs).
    SD is really good in graphics (Exynos and Mediateks not so). So if you’re thinking top-end VR ready handsets, it’s QC SD.
    Everything has pros and cons.

    • Lazar Prodanovic
      August 10, 2016

      Patch is there for quite some time.
      https://www.codeaurora.org/invalid-path-check-ashmem-memory-file-cve-2016-5340
      I hope that you know that every newer X86 CISC procesor have a similar problem & it’s a hardware design flow still no one is making much fuss about it.
      We know about security britches & in generally problems regarding msm software builds only because it’s OPEN SOURCED Code Aurora. On the other hand be certain that their is much more of it on closed source property binary blobs from other manufacturers that doesn’t go open. So if you think that things you don’t see can’t hurt you think again I am certain you are capable at least so much.
      Second regard is that putting only Mammut cores on S820 & in configuration as they are is far cry from good design. Actually their is no good design in a quiet long time concerning whole industry.

  32. Sirus Valencia
    August 10, 2016

    Qualcomm > Exynos > MediaTek

  33. Venci
    August 10, 2016

    Qualcomm for me makes the better cpus, but i awlays buy mediatek ones, cos of the price.

  34. Rich Hafley
    August 10, 2016

    Qualcomm, only because they release more documentation. It is easier to find good custom ROMs for phones with QC soc.

  35. Ondra Cutak
    August 10, 2016

    Qualcomm because of their GPU power

  36. Guest
    August 10, 2016

    Qualcomm (only 82x series & 65x series) as somehow it is more stable and lesser software problem than mediatek SOC.

    Qualcomm android update, support and bug fixes also much better than mediatek

  37. Mehmet Karatas
    August 10, 2016

    Qualcomm because security reasons, custom roms (MediaTek phones get not so much updates as qc) and GPS (because im pizzataxidriver), okay mediateks neq Helio series are too well but absolutely not so advanced as qcs snapdragon in things like GPU and other minimal characteristics. but everyone thinks differently =)

  38. Guest
    August 10, 2016

    Fanbois of either company starting fights in 3..2… oh it’s already begun !

    • kakek
      August 10, 2016

      Actually, I see very little fanboyism in this thread. Most posts have rational arguments about why each is better or worse, taking in account caracteristics that are shared by most (if not all) products of each brand and brand politics.

      Why do you troll ?

    • saur
      August 11, 2016

      may be if this was AMD vs Intel or Nvidia thread, that might be something worth reading.

    • Guest
      August 11, 2016

      MTK vs QC is no different … they’re basically the same thing when it comes to fan boy bitch fights 😀

    • Guest
      August 11, 2016

      i just love the fun and slightly trashy spirit of these forums…

      THATS what keeps it alive ! how else will these places light up and be attractive without that slight sense of fun and some trolling 😀

  39. Guest
    August 10, 2016

    i have a Nokia 105 … do i need to mention what Processor my phone runs on ?

    • Lazar Prodanovic
      August 10, 2016

      ARM V5 why do you ask?

    • Guest
      August 11, 2016

      damn bro…

    • Lazar Prodanovic
      August 11, 2016

      Just teasing you. 😃😉

    • Guest
      August 11, 2016

      haha … i know bro…

      thanks for adding to my knowledge tho :p (was always curious what powered the tiny bar phones 😀 )

    • Lazar Prodanovic
      August 11, 2016

      Well only last generations did see ARM V5, V6 most of older future phones actually worked on V4, V3. With V7 starts A series. Check the ARM CPU history. 😆😉

  40. realjjj
    August 10, 2016

    Both are just corporations , it’s idiotic to have preferences for a brand,in any area.
    They both have lots of products and every cycle each wins some,loses some.
    Excluding Spreadtrum is not quite fair either, they are there too.Only 3 are left so lets not make it just 2.
    If you compare facts , MTK is catching up with Qulacomm in smartphone SoC units as Qualcomm has been losing quite a lot of share in the last 2 years since MTK started to sell LTE. Not that it matters much to Qualcomm since the bulk of their profits is from patent trolling.
    Next year X30 might be good enough for MTK to attack, for the first time, the very high end. I kinda doubt that it’s there, since they might be using A72 and Qualcomm is likely to be using a slightly custom A73. if x30 beats Qualcomm that would put a lot of pressure on them since,in a segment where they have no competition today, they are used to get payed very well. Not optimistic about X30 though and they might need another try in 2018 to take the lead in high end. Ofc that doesn’t mean that X30 won’t have great perf, just that maybe it won’t be the fastest. Mediatek should take some risks in high end at this point, go for more advanced packaging, maybe xpoint. The safest way to win is with a big lead.
    So MTK is catching up in units and remains to be seen if they can take the lead next year but in revenue they are still behind and to start catching up in revenue they need to do more in higher end.
    Outside phones MTK keeps advancing.They just won the wifi in the new Xbox, replacing Marvell. A week or so ago the Polar M600 watch with MT2601 launched and it’s using Android Wear,might be the first Android Wear with a MTK chip.

    Qualcomm is focused too much on 5G and patents. All they care about is to charge even more for patents when 5G arrives,, kill wifi and enable carriers to better milk the consumer.Too much focus on that might lead to too little focus on actual products.

    Spreadtrum is fine in low end and it will take time for them to start gaining share in mid and high but they won’t give up.

    • Lazar Prodanovic
      August 10, 2016

      X30 is mix of a bad design & bad IP decisions and I am certain you are aware of that much. I doubt that Qualcomm will make anything much more smarter regarding upcoming designs. Sometimes I wonder culd a trained monkey do a better job then heads of “most leading” semiconductor corps.

      You forgot HiSilicon & Samsung even they don’t sell much costumer products out of main head firm.

      Spedtrum actually culd rise a lot & they did a couple of smart moves so far as strong partner relationship with CEVA. We will see. At the end me by some of those monkeys I mentioned before reads what we have to say hire regarding design and devote actual design of future products based upon it.

    • realjjj
      August 10, 2016

      I don’t have full specs for x30 so can’t really say what it will be. Mediatek is a giant by now but they are still catching up and what’s important for them is to move forward. They might not take the lead with x30 but they are getting closer and that’s good for them and for us. Qualcomm alone in the high end is not a good thing for consumers.
      I did not forget Hisilicon and Samsung , ignored them only because nobody else really uses them yet. If that changes, it would be good. Both are very large enterprises and getting better at making phone SoCs.

      Spreadtrum can rise because they have no share above low end but their first 16FF design is yet to hit devices and remains to be seen if they got it right. They will invest and try to rise but takes time.
      Ceva related, Rockchip just signed up for the CEVA-XM4 DSP.

    • Lazar Prodanovic
      August 10, 2016

      I know about Rockchip but it’s still previous gen unfortunately.
      Spedtrum needs to develop self 4G LTE competitive cellular radio thats why the CEVA partnership is so important. I didn’t mention Rockchip nor others that never showed intention of developing nor even using as IP celular radio purposely. I had to mention Samsung as it’s second largest high integrated circuits manufacturer in the world (& gaining towards Intel) not with their SoC’s but pretty much with everything else. I am not interested in highest performance SoC’s nor do I think x30 will be a rather good design I am interested in solid mid range ones but turned toward real usage needs & optimized for all the needs someone would perform with them. After all this is most important segment & one where biggest sails actually is.

    • realjjj
      August 10, 2016

      You are ignoring the financial part and that’s what drives everything in this world. reasonable choices don’t give you marketing points and you don’t sell without that.
      Look at how many people think Mediatek is weak in GPU.when they aren’t that really. If you compare SoCs that compete in the same segment, they aren’t behind. People think they are weak because they are yet to go for the high end and an oversized GPU clocked too high.

      When competing in the marketplace you can’t clock an A73 at 1.8GHz and have the competition go to 2.8GHz, you go bankrupt if you do.Would be good if regulators would step in and force more disclosure on max clocks and sustainable clocks but without that folks will keep pushing clocks too high even if makes the product worse.

      In every segment , each player tries to outfox the other guy. The biggest volumes are in low end not in mid range but every segment is important to different types of users.

      One could likely do dual A73 on 28nm at 2GHz and with 1MB L2$ it should be some 6mm2 if optimized for area. Back that up with 4xA53, add some w/e GPU and it could be rather cheap. W/e GPU because not that many users play demanding mobile games. That could be done in 100$ phones or even bellow as such a SoC on 16FFC with the A73 at higher clocks could be cheap enough for 100$ China phones.

      In anything bellow high end, the focus has to be on doing a bit more than the other guy (in areas where the consumer can see the difference), time to market and reducing costs. The consumer sees CPU perf GPU perf and that’s about it. When it comes to camera perf the ISP makes a difference but consumers look at most at the sensor. Dealing with phone makers is a bit more complex ofc.

      Ok that was too long and a bit all over the place but too lazy to edit. The point is that reasonable products are almost impossible to make when the consumer can’t see that your choices are reasonable. The absolute need for cost reductions makes it even harder.

    • Lazar Prodanovic
      August 10, 2016

      First I am not neglecting anything especially not financial part. Secondly put from already tiped out parts (POP) developing & producing a SoC on FinFET lithographic proces is not much considerably pricier. Second thing is if you utilize all 4 A73s at 1.8GHz vs two of them at 2.8GHz they will be able to do equal amount of job or quad one would be a even bit ahead. Now let’s say they are made on 10 nm FinFET TSMC & that two at 2.8 will consume 1500mV wile quad at 1.8 will consume half of that. I know that most of apps use only two CPUs I also know that most of apps don’t really need all that power. Now considered that A73 at 1.8GHz is equivalent to A53 at 3.15GHz (by my more modest performance ratio of A73s compared to actual Arm’s projections [me 175% ARM 190%]). Don’t you think that’s enough? Most people find A53s at 2GHz satisfactionary. At the end I must ask why do you think that SoC that would actually provide best user experience would fail? MTK dose put weaker GPU’s but purposely because they take largest part of die size. That is their way to say we made a fantastic products that is equal to concurrent one & we are selling it much cheaper. I didn’t go unrealistic with neither the size nor cost for a GPU in that sketch of SoC of mine. GPU’s need to advance along with mobile gaming but along user experience wile doing so should go forward. So I actually proposed a GPU that would cost same amount as current one used on Kirins 950,955 & X20 that would be equal performing but would use half the power wile doing so. That is enough for enjoyable experience on FHD display I didn’t go for 8 or 12 or even 16 clusters ones & 2K, 4K displays nor VR as I think that’s still not possible wile retaining desirable user experience (not even for QC). It makes a lot of differences if you can game 2.5h or 4h on one battery charge.
      Take a look at power efficiency diagrams presented by ARM for the A73s. You will see that they are a bit more efficient than A9s. Now try to remember some of very famous A9 SoC’s that didn’t had any litle clusters to back them up like for instance Exunos from original S3 (first quad core ever) or Panda bords. So you see A73 can go self stand without A53s or A35s especially on FinFET. I know ARM originally promoted idea of a dual A73 & quad A53 clusters but it’s actually wrong & far worser that quad A73 alone. Now let’s also consider how an A73 at 400MHz will consume less power than A53 at 700MHz at same production process & this is enough for smooth scrolling. It will also consume even lesser at 1GHz vs A53 at 1.75 GHz & this is enough for almost anything. So you don’t need a big litle for anything anymore you see.

      Actuality no one tried to make anything that would really be orientated towards consumers in a very long time now & opposite to you I actually think it would be embraced very good from both costumers & market as to hell we really need something like that. As much as I know most part of the market share still belongs to mid segment in almost any traditional or less traditional market segment like for instance desktop CPUs or GPU’s, top & bottom are much smaller & flatter. I don’t see why would it be any different in SoC market.

    • realjjj
      August 11, 2016

      Consumers will chose higher clocks over lower power.
      Consumers whine about battery life and then they go buy thin phones with small batteries on looks. Consumers are not rational and informed, they should be but they aren’t. Apple has only 2 cores and most people think they are “the fastest” just because they lead in single threaded perf- this is very relevant in the 2 vs 4 cores convo.Even review sites can’t compare Kryo with A72, they think Kryo is faster and better just because the total Geekbench score is higher and that’s without even factoring in power.

      PPA still matters. In phones you have a certain TDP and there is no need to go bellow it by a lot just to increase efficiency,thus, as long as under that TDP limit, the focus is on perf and area. As long as the battery lasts for an entire day, it’s fine as people got used to that.

      In high end there is more flexibility but the lower you go, the higher the focus on area.

      As for best user experience, best value , most marketable, those are all different things. And that was the point Best value would be most perf in areas that matter per cost. Best user experience would be best perf in all areas,no matter the costs. Sufficient user experience would be a very different matter and is subjective. Most marketable would be about TAM in $ and market share.

      As for my personal preference, at this stage i wouldn’t be too demanding as A72 is plenty fast and if i game i’ll do it on PC, don’t have time to get bored enough to game on mobile.For battery life , if i could chose i would prefer fast charging and removable battery and ,just in case, solar cells on the back. A screen with no upper and lower bezels like the newly announced JDI would be nice too.http://www.j-display.com/english/news/2016/20160809.html That’s what i would need today but there can be differences between what one needs and wants. Maybe i could want fantastic perf at 0$ 😀

      If i had to make a SoC for a certain segment, my needs and wants would have zero relevance as i would need to make something i can sell. If you want something that sells,in high end one needs to win in benchmarks. Bellow that you need to outfox the other guy,offer a bit more for a bit less and hopefully do it a bit faster.

      I don’t want to say that a certain config would be the best because different people want different things. For some A53 is great, some want the very fastest. In general consumers try to get the most they can get so more is better as long as it fits in their budget.Not really in the mood to imagine some SoC either tbh.

    • Lazar Prodanovic
      August 11, 2016

      Well you do have imagined a whole phone for that matter.
      Teling someone how battery can last whole day is crazy, SOT time & power consumption in sleep state /h is relevant. Well we can’t talk about bang for $ & continue with A72s as they take 3x the space of A53…
      I on the other hand would opted for Amoled & 5.2″ one FHD with thin enough bezels. Market met phones already that came with SoC that would approximately cost as the one I imagined & with pretty good build & everything else for $150 (Mi4c with S808) on days when resellers wanted to get rid of them so it’s actually possible not that anyone with a new product would go with price like that. One thing I give you a credit is a removable battery as I also like & prefer them. Sufficient user experience is not subjective category ist our physical limitation to spot something so it’s a blink of an eye timing.

    • realjjj
      August 11, 2016

      AMOLED means Pentile and a 720p experience so hell NO.
      And the point of that JDI is no lower and upper bezels, enabling a greater screen to body ratio,not side bezels.

    • Lazar Prodanovic
      August 11, 2016

      Even with Pentile matrix that also means 2/3 of nominal resolution for the B, R not 1/2 but it also means very high contrast, real black, deeper colors & at least 20% smaller power consumption. I don’t know how to brake it to you but Leds even with full HDR (1000 nits & dynamic processing) standard aren’t there yet in some arias they come close like that but still not the same (including all known matrix & quantum dot’s…). Don’t have anything against JDI Lcd’s. When you huck up once to Amoled their is hardly a way back.

  41. Lazar Prodanovic
    August 10, 2016

    Actually I don’t like neither of them. I did like Texas Instruments their Open Source tribute is even today year’s after they stepped down from consumer SoC business far greater than anyone ever achieved. For example their 4 years old SoC’s have still most of the driver’s up streame & up to date Linux compatibility which is something I can not say for anyone else including even newest products they sell. Second choice whose Broadcom after Texas Instruments stepped down for their more intelligent design & gain in open source community they got with popularity of cheap ARM compute bords like Raspberry Pi & also for the first ever (even) today known (decoded) cellular modem functionality. So they did also pushed Open Source boundaries forward but it didn’t last long. Both of them ware pushed out of the business by Qualcomm uncompetitive practices. Between Qualcomm & MTK I chose Qualcomm as it’s last open source stock not because I love them. Design wise they are both far from anything good all do Qualcomm is most of the time better.

    I really think that it’s time & enough space for someone or something “new” to emerge.

    • Guest
      August 11, 2016

      There’s Samsung and Huawei, and i heard Xiaomi was gonna make their own chips.

  42. Guest
    August 10, 2016

    Had a 6595 phone. Will never buy a MediaTek phone again.

    • kakek
      August 10, 2016

      Care to elaborate?

    • MattD
      August 10, 2016

      There were like 2 6595 phones: from the way he talks, it could be the zopo… So, understandable 😁

    • Guest
      August 11, 2016

      From the way you talk – with a casual “like” thrown in, and an attempted (but failed) sarcasm, it’s quite apparent that you don’t know much about manufacturers and what they put in their devices. Here’s an incomplete list of phones which housed the 6595 SoC, “like” a lot more than just 2:

      Meizu MX4
      Meizu M1 Note
      Coolpad X7
      Coolpad Grand 5
      Jiayu S3
      Lenovo Vibe X2
      Lenovo A936
      Alcatel Idol Series (1 top-end variant, released later)

      Of course, I’ve left out the brand you mentioned. Never really heard of them.

    • Guest
      August 11, 2016

      Good list!

      I think HTC One M9+ was also available (albeit for a limited time) with the 6595T (Turbo) version. It wasn’t widespread like the X10 version, but still.

    • Guest
      August 11, 2016

      No, not worth the effort and argument that will ensue.

    • MattD
      August 11, 2016

      I won’t even start to say what kind of prick you are, just pointing out that more of the phones you mentioned did NOT have the 6595, so I’m assuming you’re mostly a troll. Make your researches before calling out others (in a bad way) for “not knowing much”… Probably I don’t know “much” indeed, but I’m not attacking anyone out of the blue for literally nothing

    • Guest
      August 11, 2016

      — “I won’t even start to say what kind of prick you are” —
      Pot calling the kettle black, dickhead.

      I’m assuming you’re entirely (not mostly) a miserable dickhead and a troll rolled into one, going by how you don’t like the taste of your own medicine. Review your idiotic responses first before expecting courtesy and polite dialog from others. I didn’t post here for someone to throw sarcasm around, or guess which phone I might or might not have owned. Could have asked, instead of judging “from the way he talks”.

      Freakin’ pimp.

    • kakek
      August 11, 2016

      Then your post is useless, to this other wise non-troll thread.

    • kakek
      August 11, 2016

      There’s like (wink wink ) a hundred chinese brand, some of them being merely a rebrand of others. I think it’s pretty much impossible to know all of them. Zopo was much more relevant 3 years ago. They’ve lost a lot of wind since then.

    • Bruno
      August 11, 2016

      Jiayu S3 has MTK 6752 and I am completely satisfied with the phone.
      I have it for almost 2,5 years and it still worka flawlessy!
      (Truth is we god great developers and MM mods like CyanogenMod so it cannot be bad)

    • Lazar Prodanovic
      August 11, 2016

      He probably ment S4…

    • MattD
      August 12, 2016

      Dude, you funny 😁 hope you have better luck with your next troll, this one has potential (you know, someone could have said “that chip won antutu top 10” and that could have been an aperture to talk back and such), but you still have to work about it… The “zopo is an offense” line was hilarious af, I must say 😁

  43. Guaire
    August 10, 2016

    Qualcomm gonna be peerless again at ~2000 yuan flagship market and X30 will only find a place at ~1000 yuan budget phablets if they are smart enough IMO.

    If X30 meant to be a true high-end SoC it still would have better a GPU and a quad A73 cluster or maybe custom A73 made by ARM.

    If it meant to be more budget friendly option to true flagship chips, 10nm doesn’t make sense hence its more expensive manufacturing process. And quad A53 cluster doesn’t make sense anyway hence dual A73 die area is equivalent to quad A53, moreover smaller and more efficient A35 cores is very close to A53 performance wise.

    22nm FD-SOI would be perfect for it with its 14/16nm FinFET low power performance at 28nm cost IMO.

  44. Lazar Prodanovic
    August 10, 2016

    This is my idea of costumer orientated ideal mid range SoC for upcoming generation.
    It should be mostly based on already finished & ready to be used licensable main building blocks from ARM and in a POP form to cut both time and cost to market.
    As follows: A Quad cluster A73 main & only general purpose CPU cluster clocked reasonably at 1.8Ghz top based on 10 nm FinFET TSMC production process & managed good with typical use frequency restrictions guvernere for usually usage scenarios (even if it hurts synthetic performance a bit). A dual A35 cluster clocked inside very restrictive margins that are usual for high grade microcontroller units in embedded industry (around 400Mhz) that should be used for general less demanding tasks, offloading of basic tasks from big cores such are storage control, all general purpose tasks in screen off mode (notifications & cetera) & cetera. The A35 cluster should be most of time active one so it should be as power efficient as possible. A Quad cluster ARM MALI G71 T860 – T880 successor clocked lower at about 550MHz so that it can match the performance of currently used same configured contraparts wile using only half of needed energy (manufacturing and design advantages combined) & that would represent a rather good performance/user experience lv on FHD panels. A DSP suitable for most of tasks (media, deep learning, image processing & other parallel compute ones). Any one from last gen licensable IP’s from any of: Synopsis, CEVA or Tensilica all do compared to each other all of them have advantages & disadvantages I would give a go to a first one actually available & ready for a TSMC 10 nm FinFET proces as a POP IP off course. All that with a good not cheap interconnect as new & now competitive ARM one’s & of course paired with good advanced cellular radio.

    For me this represent the best at the moment possible real world & real usage scenario SoC design that doesn’t brake a cost limits & should stay in margins of current generation of good mid range ones as S650 or X20 wile it would be a very beneficial to real users & real world usage scenarios, it wouldn’t brick any synthetic top results of performance benchmarks from today ones but would save a lot of energy and make user experience in most & every field much better (battery, life, heat, real workloads, gaming experience, vision & cetera). This is how it should look from pure designer perspective without any idiotic marketing aspect cost/performance/power consumption optimized.

    Of course I don’t make them so this is just my pair of shoes regarding the topic.

  45. Guest
    August 10, 2016

    What is the aim of this political article? most of the users didn’t used phones with phones with Soc of Mediatek and Qualcomm, and even if there is users that did was the Soc in the same category? so this open thread not valid. Sorry.

  46. Marius Cirsta
    August 10, 2016

    Well for me it’s simple. Mediatek SOC phones are usually cheaper and Mediatek also builds stuff with better CPU and not so great GPU which is great for me because I never play games.

  47. kakek
    August 10, 2016

    I really don’t like buying mediatek phones, because it means the phone will have little to no update. And custom roms are pretty much impossible due to lack of documentation.

    Also, but less of a problem : slower GPS fix (still work), weaker GPU (but I don’t play much), often lacking some frequency for 4G (though that last one migh not be mediatek’s problem.)

    I still consider it for my next phone, because mtk equiped phones are so much cheaper for the same hardware as qualcomm’s ones.

    • KingCobra
      August 10, 2016

      You’re either a liar MTK hater or mistaken. MediaTek SoC’s don’t have GPS feature / antenna in them – just an FYI.

      One has to download an engineering tool (I forget the name, something with MTK uncle) – this downloads files called EPO files from MediaTek’s servers, and they need to be downloaded monthly and updated (very prone to failure). GizChina had an article on it as well (Google it).

      However, once you’ve downloaded this EPO, lock times come down from an hour to about 10-12 minutes (under an open sky, not indoor), and it all happens in the software, nothing to do with the MTK chip.

      I have personally used the EPO files, but now I have Exynos which doesn’t need EPO files since I think the chip has GPS.

      Maybe MTK should include EPO files when shipping phone? So that users don’t have to download them? I don’t know why they don’t do that.

      • Fox Hunter
        August 10, 2016

        that will make mtk chips more expensive.

        • kakek
          August 11, 2016

          Calm down, I’m neither a liar, nor an MTK hater.

          Me and my gf both have MTK phones currently. And some friends of mine to … I simply saw that they fix GPS way slower than every qualcomm phone I’ve seen, and supposed it had to do with mediatek. That and, obviously, maybe half-informed posts that confirmed it online.

          BTW, both my mtk phones can fix much faster than 10-12 min. More like 3-5 (yes, I’ve DLed EPO). But any QC phone i’ve seen (even entry level one) would have instant fix, like 5-30 seconds. Even under bad condition.

          Not considering technical reasons, it’s a fact MTK equiped phones have weaker GPS.

      • Eni
        August 11, 2016

        How many years do you have without using a mediatek phone.

      • Daniel
        August 12, 2016

        10 minutes? Maybe with the old 65xx ones..
        GPS works perfectly in newer MTK socs.
        Weaker CPU is no problem because there is no game which needs that performance…

  48. Assefa Hanson
    August 10, 2016

    i dont prefer any since i buy a complete phone and not a chip

    • Heretic
      August 10, 2016

      Also read as: “Actually, I’m a closet MediaTek fanboy, and am not willing to admit that QualComm *generally* makes better chips since it hurts my sentiments, so instead I’ll make a generic, beaten-to-death statement that reeks of cliche while making myself seem intelligent, possessing a discerning, analytical nature. Actually, I’m just broke and hoping that MediaTek releases something for my wallet. Wish I could afford a Snapdragon though. YOLO”.

      • kakek
        August 11, 2016

        Don’t be a troll.

        For me that would be the opposite. I prefer MTK chip, but I don’t buy them because the software part of MTK-equiped phones is often bad, ruining the potential of the hardware.

      • balcobomber25
        August 30, 2016

        He’s a closet troll because he refuses to pick on or the other, yea that makes a lot of sense.

  49. Gemfire
    August 10, 2016

    Fact check for Qualcomm fanboys:

    – MTK chips are faster (by almost 2x) for everyday tasks
    – MTK chips are faster on synthetics too
    – MTK chips never overheat, not even under full gaming load
    – MTK chips are much cheaper, often by 70-80%, than QC
    – MTK chips are more stable, have lesser bugs
    – MTK newer chips have better GPS than Qualcomm
    – MTK chips have excellent GPUs, but games are optimized for QC (culture)
    – MTK has never had any chip that was a segment failure (like the SD615 / 810)
    – MTK is more reliable than QC anyday
    – MTK devices, are naturally lower priced than QC devices
    – MTK devices don’t suffer from a crazy update cycle, the chips perform for years
    – MTK flagship devices cost lesser than even QC midrange devices
    – MTK X30 upcoming will *crush* any Qualcomm or Samsung chip

    In my opinion, only people with illegally earned money or trolls with self esteem issues buy Qualcomm / Exynos based phones, because MTK offers far superior performance and features for much lesser prices.

    • Fox Hunter
      August 10, 2016

      For mid range or low end devices, definitely Mediatek, for higher end devices, Samsung or Kirin from Huawei. Qualcomm is overpriced and they are bullies like Microsoft or Apple.

      • kakek
        August 11, 2016

        Sadly, like microsoft or apple (or nividia while we’re at it) QC overpricing and borderline monopolistic strategies does not mean they don’t have objectively good product.

    • Avinash kumar
      August 11, 2016

      LOL

    • Ondra Cutak
      August 11, 2016

      HAHA that sentece with illegally earned money made my day lol 😀 Im real gangstar now with my mafia money because I got Snap 820 in my device! MTK chips got like no GPU its not about optimalization its raw power that you can test in all benchmarks.. MTK cant compete vs single power Snap CPUs if you want high end you will get Snap820 its the same in Desktop segment when you want high end you arent gonna buy AMD you will stick to Intel / Nvidia even if its twice its price. If you dont have money AMD in desktop or MTK in mobile is perfect sweet spot for you. If you have money there is holding you buying Snap820 / Nvidia / Intel.

    • Lazar Prodanovic
      August 11, 2016

      Never heard more lies on one place.
      This is even beyond Donald Tramp’s election campaign by its stupidity.

    • Sere83
      August 11, 2016

      Lol, Fact check for absolute dellusionaist.

      1. For a start MTK don’t release their source code which is a total joke. 2.Secondly GPU performance is never better on MTK chips than on qualcomm equivalents. The SD820 absolutely destroys the X25, literally obliterates it in GPU performance and in benchmarks.
      3.Qualcomm also has much better modems than MTK and support way way more bands.
      4. I don’t know wher you are getting that MTK have less bugs, the X25 launched with driver compatibility problems and Loads of older MTK chips were utter failures especially when it came to GPS, they were horrible.

  50. kakek
    August 10, 2016

    I really don’t like buying mediatek phones, because it means the phone will have little to no update. And custom roms are pretty much impossible due to lack of documentation.

    Also, but less of a problem : slower GPS fix (still work), weaker GPU (but I don’t play much), often lacking some frequency for 4G (though that last one migh not be mediatek’s problem.)

    I still consider it for my next phone, because mtk equiped phones are so much cheaper for the same hardware as qualcomm’s ones.

    • Guest
      August 11, 2016

      You’re either a liar MTK hater or mistaken. MediaTek SoC’s don’t have GPS feature / antenna in them – just an FYI.

      One has to download an engineering tool (I forget the name, something with MTK uncle) – this downloads files called EPO files from MediaTek’s servers, and they need to be downloaded monthly and updated (very prone to failure). GizChina had an article on it as well (Google it).

      However, once you’ve downloaded this EPO, lock times come down from an hour to about 10-12 minutes (under an open sky, not indoor), and it all happens in the software, nothing to do with the MTK chip.

      I have personally used the EPO files, but now I have Exynos which doesn’t need EPO files since I think the chip has GPS.

      Maybe MTK should include EPO files when shipping phone? So that users don’t have to download them? I don’t know why they don’t do that.

    • Guest
      August 11, 2016

      that will make mtk chips more expensive.

    • kakek
      August 11, 2016

      Calm down, I’m neither a liar, nor an MTK hater.

      Me and my gf both have MTK phones currently. And some friends of mine to … I simply saw that they fix GPS way slower than every qualcomm phone I’ve seen, and supposed it had to do with mediatek. That and, obviously, maybe half-informed posts that confirmed it online.

      BTW, both my mtk phones can fix much faster than 10-12 min. More like 3-5 (yes, I’ve DLed EPO). But any QC phone i’ve seen (even entry level one) would have instant fix, like 5-30 seconds. Even under bad condition.

      Not considering technical reasons, it’s a fact MTK equiped phones have weaker GPS.

      Edit : Quite in the same way, I’m not that clear on WHY mediatek phones get so little updates and custom roms. But it’s a fact … I considered a leagoo shark 1, and what made me avoid it was, like with many MTK phones
      1 / android 5.1, will probably never see anything else. Asked on XDA if there was any chance of custom roms … and the answer was “MTK phones = very slim chance of any custom roms.”
      2 / lack of some bands for 4G

    • Guest
      August 11, 2016

      How many years do you have without using a mediatek phone.

    • Guest
      August 12, 2016

      10 minutes? Maybe with the old 65xx ones..
      GPS works perfectly in newer MTK socs.
      Weaker CPU is no problem because there is no game which needs that performance…

  51. Fox Hunter
    August 10, 2016

    Like people already mentioned, Qualcomm is a patent troll, i hate patent trolls, they hurt innovation and competition. So mediatek is better cause they ain’t patent trolls like qualcomm. Companies don’t need Qualcomm, look at Meizu, they do well with mediatek and samsung chips.

    • Wolvie
      August 11, 2016

      Yeah i couldn’t agree more regarding Qualcomm is a patent troll, that’s why their SOC is always expensive because come bundled with a bunch of their own patents that other SOC must pay separately.

      But whoever have the patent for 3G, 4G,LTE all are trolls also. For example Ericsson ,Nokia, etc

    • Lazar Prodanovic
      August 11, 2016

      Meizu will brake down next year if they don’t consolidate & make something right soon. They didn’t made anything right this whole year.
      This is not specifically tied to preference of SoC’s they are using.

  52. Assefa Hanson
    August 10, 2016

    i dont prefer any since i buy a complete phone and not a chip

    • Guest
      August 11, 2016

      Also read as: “Actually, I’m a closet MediaTek fanboy, and am not willing to admit that QualComm *generally* makes better chips since it hurts my sentiments, so instead I’ll make a generic, beaten-to-death statement that reeks of cliche while making myself seem intelligent, possessing a discerning, analytical nature. Actually, I’m just broke and hoping that MediaTek releases something for my wallet. Wish I could afford a Snapdragon though. YOLO”.

    • kakek
      August 11, 2016

      Don’t be a troll.

      For me that would be the opposite. I prefer MTK chip, but I don’t buy them because the software part of MTK-equiped phones is often bad, ruining the potential of the hardware.

    • balcobomber25
      August 30, 2016

      He’s a closet troll because he refuses to pick on or the other, yea that makes a lot of sense.

  53. saur
    August 11, 2016

    sd650 in my rn3 which has better performance letv/leeco 1s trash that i was using before.Plus with cyanogen nightly available, i doubt MTK is better than QC. May be in those cheaper device like coolpad note lite providing 3gb ram very cheaply but when you want performance QC it is for me. Xiaomi never provide fast update for their MTK devices so no MTK for me ever.

  54. Guest
    August 11, 2016

    Fact check for Qualcomm fanboys:

    – MTK chips are faster (by almost 2x) for everyday tasks
    – MTK chips are faster on synthetics too
    – MTK chips never overheat, not even under full gaming load
    – MTK chips are much cheaper, often by 70-80%, than QC
    – MTK chips are more stable, have lesser bugs
    – MTK newer chips have better GPS than Qualcomm
    – MTK chips have excellent GPUs, but games are optimized for QC (culture)
    – MTK has never had any chip that was a segment failure (like the SD615 / 810)
    – MTK is more reliable than QC anyday
    – MTK devices, are naturally lower priced than QC devices
    – MTK devices don’t suffer from a crazy update cycle, the chips perform for years
    – MTK flagship devices cost lesser than even QC midrange devices
    – MTK X30 upcoming will *crush* any Qualcomm or Samsung chip

    In my opinion, only people with illegally earned money or trolls with self esteem issues buy Qualcomm / Exynos based phones, because MTK offers far superior performance and features for much lesser prices.

    • Guest
      August 11, 2016

      For mid range or low end devices, definitely Mediatek, for higher end devices, Samsung or Kirin from Huawei. Qualcomm is overpriced and they are bullies like Microsoft or Apple.

    • Avinash kumar
      August 11, 2016

      LOL

    • Ondra Cutak
      August 11, 2016

      HAHA that sentece with illegally earned money made my day lol 😀 Im real gangstar now with my mafia money because I got Snap 820 in my device! MTK chips got like no GPU its not about optimalization its raw power that you can test in all benchmarks.. MTK cant compete vs single power Snap CPUs if you want high end you will get Snap820 its the same in Desktop segment when you want high end you arent gonna buy AMD you will stick to Intel / Nvidia even if its twice its price. If you dont have money AMD in desktop or MTK in mobile is perfect sweet spot for you. If you have money there is holding you buying Snap820 / Nvidia / Intel.

    • Lazar Prodanovic
      August 11, 2016

      Never heard more lies on one place.
      This is even beyond Donald Tramp’s election campaign by its stupidity.

    • kakek
      August 11, 2016

      Sadly, like microsoft or apple (or nividia while we’re at it) QC overpricing and borderline monopolistic strategies does not mean they don’t have objectively good product.

    • Sere83
      August 11, 2016

      Lol, Fact check for absolute dellusionist.

      1. For a start MTK don’t release their source code which is a total joke. 2.Secondly GPU performance is never better on MTK chips than on qualcomm equivalents. The SD820 absolutely destroys the X25, literally obliterates it in GPU performance and in benchmarks.
      3.Qualcomm also has much better modems than MTK and support way way more bands.
      4. I don’t know where you are getting that MTK have less bugs, the X25 launched with driver compatibility problems and Loads of older MTK chips were utter failures especially when it came to GPS, they were horrible.

  55. Guest
    August 11, 2016

    Like people already mentioned, Qualcomm is a patent troll, i hate patent trolls, they hurt innovation and competition. So mediatek is better cause they ain’t patent trolls like qualcomm. Companies don’t need Qualcomm, look at Meizu, they do well with mediatek and samsung chips.

    • Guest
      August 11, 2016

      Yeah i couldn’t agree more regarding Qualcomm is a patent troll, that’s why their SOC is always expensive because come bundled with a bunch of their own patents that other SOC must pay separately.

      But whoever have the patent for 3G, 4G,LTE all are trolls also. For example Ericsson ,Nokia, etc

    • Lazar Prodanovic
      August 11, 2016

      Meizu will brake down next year if they don’t consolidate & make something right soon. They didn’t made anything right this whole year.
      This is not specifically tied to preference of SoC’s they are using.

  56. saur
    August 11, 2016

    sd650 in my rn3 which has better performance letv/leeco 1s trash that i was using before.Plus with cyanogen nightly available, i doubt MTK is better than QC. May be in those cheaper device like coolpad note lite providing 3gb ram very cheaply but when you want performance QC it is for me. Xiaomi never provide fast update for their MTK devices so no MTK for me ever.

  57. hacker power
    August 11, 2016

    MTK: Cheaper and Best Multi Core Performance, doesn’t release source code.
    QC: More expensive and has Best Single Core Performance, source code available.

    That’s about it.

  58. Airyl
    August 11, 2016

    And, there goes the lid to Pandora’s Box.

  59. hacker power
    August 11, 2016

    MTK: Cheaper and Best Multi Core Performance, doesn’t release source code.
    QC: More expensive and has Best Single Core Performance, source code available.

    That’s about it.

  60. Airyl
    August 11, 2016

    And, there goes the lid to Pandora’s Box.

  61. Luai Kamel
    August 11, 2016

    Price Value: MTK is the winner.
    For Development: QC is the winner.
    CPU Performance: Both are rock solid.
    GPU Performance: of course QC is the winner, but to be honest MTK X10+ is smoothly handling all games on Google plays.
    GPS Quality: I hate MTK (I have Meizu MX5)
    Heat Issue: MTK is better.
    Energy consumption: X20 (20nm) vs S 810 (20nm) : X20 winner if Gaming involved as weak GPU is less power consumption.
    so finally most new smartphones get the job done , no matter MTK,QC,SAM (Mid/High End).

    in Desktop for example , for High end Intel/Nvidia are best option (Great support)
    while AMD lack in built in USB 3.x and thunderbolt support.

    When you buy Phone or Desktop, first search for what will fit your passion and needs.

  62. Luai Kamel
    August 11, 2016

    Price Value: MTK is the winner.
    For Development: QC is the winner.
    CPU Performance: Both are rock solid.
    GPU Performance: of course QC is the winner, but to be honest MTK X10+ is smoothly handling all games on Google plays.
    GPS Quality: I hate MTK (I have Meizu MX5)
    Heat Issue: MTK is better.
    Energy consumption: X20 (20nm) vs S 810 (20nm) : X20 winner if Gaming involved as weak GPU is less power consumption.
    so finally most new smartphones get the job done , no matter MTK,QC,SAM (Mid/High End).

    in Desktop for example , for High end Intel/Nvidia are best option (Great support)
    while AMD lack in built in USB 3.x and thunderbolt support.

    When you buy Phone or Desktop, first search for what will fit your passion and needs.