Earlier this year, MediaTek unveiled the Helio P60 mobile chipset which has been a popular option in various budget phones with as much as 15 devices already using the mobile platform. MediaTek is now reportedly gunning to launch the sequel to the Helio P60 with the launch of the Helio P70 which is expected to happen before the end of October.
The successor to the MediaTek Helio P60 chipset is also likely to be manufactured using a 12nm FinFET process, which is similar to that of its predecessor. The Helio P70 will feature an octa-core processor with four Cortex A73 for performance and four Cortex A53 which will take care of the efficiency. For graphics, the Helio P70 will make use of the Mali-G72 GPU though we’re yet to know more of the GPU core count and the clock speed.
The main difference between the Helio P70 and the P60 is that the P70 will sport a discrete Neural Processing Unit (NPU) instead of the Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) found in Helio P60, which was initially introduced as an AI-focused chipset.
Upon its launch, the MediaTek Helio P70 will be the direct competitor to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 710 mobile platform, which was introduced earlier this year as a new entrant to the mid-range segment. With the P70, MediaTek will be looking to engage more Chinese manufacturers into using their SoCs for developing entry-level to mid-range smartphones.
Previous rumours have indicated that the Helio P70 will render support for up to 8GB of RAM, eMMC 5.1 or UFS 2.1 storage, three ISPs, up to a 32MP camera and a Cat.12 LTE modem. The AI technology built onto the chip will relay facial recognition as well as 3D sensing and AR/VR capabilities.
Several reports also suggest that MediaTek will soon start the mass production of application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC) on a 7nm process, meaning a 7nm mobile chipset isn’t a far-fetched thought. The integrated circuits are designed for supply to world’s leading gaming console makers which could be two companies from Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo.