Mediatek's new Helio X20 mobile processor has an extra gear. Designed for high-end smartphones, the X20 uses a "tri-cluster" architecture that shifts through three sets of cores rather than two. According to Mediatek's Mohit Bhushan, that makes the X20 more power-efficient than competing chips, while still offering the highest possible speeds.
Yes, all the specs leaked out on Weibo last week, but we got an official briefing, for what it's worth.
The X20 has custom firmware that shuffles tasks into four categories: very low, low, medium, and high power demand. Audio playback and sensor use get tossed over to a super-low-power ARM Cortex-M4 processor. Tasks like entering text are dropped on a 1.4GHz, quad-ARM-Cortex-A53 set. Launching apps and scrolling get handled by a 2GHz quad-ARM-Cortex-A53 set, and things like gaming and heavy image processing are handled by two 2.5GHz Cortex-A72 cores. All those A53s and A72s are 64-bit.
Many modern smartphone chipsets have two groups of four cores, letting some tasks sip power on low-power cores without turning on higher-intensity cores. The X20 takes this to the next level, offering what Mediatek claims is 30 percent better battery life than competing chipsets.
Along with the three sets of cores, the X20 has a Category 6 LTE modem that's capable of handling all of the U.S. carriers at once—yes, including both CDMA and GSM carriers. It's up to the carriers to enable this feature, but it is "now compliant with the requirements of U.S. operators," Bhushan said.
In terms of graphics, Mediatek is following Intel by investing in depth engines, the new form of 3D camera that Bhushan says is particularly useful in augmented-reality apps. The chipset can handle dual 13-megapixel cameras, he said. Mediatek is still eschewing true 4K display support and going for 2,560-by-1,600 support intead; last year Bhushan said that 4K displays were "overdesigned for smartphones."
Mediatek's position in the U.S. is still weak; so far it's only been seen in Alcatel's T-Mobile phones. It sounds like the new modem, especially, may change that.
We haven't seen any X20s in action, obviously, and as we saw with Qualcomm's impressively specced but ultimately testy Snapdragon 810, the proof is in the products. Mediatek's latest chip shows that Qualcomm can't rest on its laurels, and it makes the upcoming Snapdragon 820 an even more critical product for the U.S. chipset leader. The X20 will appear in phones by February 2016, Bhushan said.