MediaTek, as a brand, feels a little like Huawei did a few years back. That is, somewhat unknown but mighty hungry to make an impression. And we all know how that worked out for Huawei. Right now, though, if it’s not made by Apple, Qualcomm, or Samsung, most of us don’t pay a whole lot of attention to mobile processors. That may change. MediaTek’s Helio range has been around for some time but it’s getting a new, mobile gaming-focused update.
The Taiwanese chip-maker has announced its new gaming-ready Helio G90 series of mobile processors, hoping to boost its profile as a high-end processor maker. Which, honestly, we’d like to see. A more crowded field usually means better tech for the rest of us.
SoC it to em
And it’s better tech that the company is promising. The range consists of two processors, the Helio G90 and the Helio G90T. Both of them are octa-core processors (a trend that MediaTek started) featuring an ARM-based Cortex-A76 2.06GHz quad-core section for heavy lifting and a Cortex-A55 quad for less demanding times. Mali-G76 graphics are the order of the day, and the two SoCs (system-on-chip) will support up to 10GB LPDDR4x RAM. That strikes us as being enough to satisfy the most speed-hungry among us but the company’s also promising more gaming-specific features.
Features like the so-called HyperEngine tech, which allows MediaTek’s G-series chips to intelligently manage different data connections. Connection to two different WiFi networks at once is possible, and HyperEngine also lets a device call on an LTE connection to supplement a ropy WiFi signal. You know, in case you’re closing in on that chicken dinner and some jackass moves a lead shield between you and the router. Hey, you could game in a radiologists office. We don’t know. The chipset also includes support for up to 64MP camera sensor arrangements, be it single or multi-lens systems.
What we don’t know is the first device to feature the Helio G90 series. This also means we have no idea when they’ll launch but MediaTek has its eyes on a gaming-specific smartphone. Perhaps we’ll see a Helio-powered competitor to Asus’ ROG smartphones or Razer’s Phone lineup soon. In which case, we wonder what colour the backlighting is going to be…?
Source: MediaTek
