ANDRIOD AUTHORITY
- The new MediaTek Helio P22 will give mid-range smartphones the ability to offer higher-end features like AI, dual cameras, and more.
- MediaTek hopes that this new chip line will power what it calls the “new premium” smartphone market.
- The MediaTek Helio P22 series will likely appear in smartphones by the third quarter of 2018.
System-on-chip maker MediaTek announced a new line of mobile chipsets today: the MediaTek Helio P22. This new line is designed to power what MediaTek refers to as the “new premium” smartphone category; that is, mid-range phones with features traditionally found in higher-end models.
As such, the Helio P22 chipset will feature a 12nm manufacturing process, the first-of-its-kind in the mid-range mobile industry. With that kind of speed, the SoC’s will be AI-capable, able to power better cameras, and offer more reliable high-speed data connections.
The chipsets will also support higher display resolutions than the mid-range market usually sees (MediaTek uses the example of a 20:9 ratio at a 1,600 x 720 resolution), Bluetooth 5.0, 802.11ac Wi-Fi speeds, and LTE connectivity on up to two SIM cards.
The Helio P22 series is in production now and will start showing up in consumer devices by the third quarter of this year.
With the mid-range market getting better and better phones and more high-end features making their way down to even devices in the sub-$200 range, MediaTek is likely hoping to capitalize on the consumer shift from high-priced flagships to more mid-range models – if consumers are buying smartphones at all.
Unfortunately, MediaTek does have a reputation for not keeping their SoC software up-to-date, which results in smartphones no longer receiving Android updates only months after release. However, the company has committed to changing that reputation.
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Source: ANDRIOD AUTHORITY