Snapdragon 865 vs Dimensity 1000+: Qualcomm's chip heads AnTuTu's Android SoC performance chart but MediaTek shows it can compete with the best

A couple of recently released charts have shown how well MediaTek has been performing with its new Dimensity lineup of processors. Firstly, AnTuTu has just released a chart of the top 10 performing smartphone processors for the first half of the year, with the scores being based on just the CPU and GPU results of the performance benchmark (ruling out advantages created via faster storage types, etc.). The Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 SoC has a very strong lead at the top, but it is MediaTek’s Dimensity 1000+ that comes in second place.

In fact, three MediaTek parts manage to make it into the AnTuTu table: 1000+ (2nd), 1000L (7th), and 820 (10th). There are three representatives for Qualcomm and four for HiSilicon processors, but you would expect the Snapdragon/Kirin establishment to perform well here. The new Dimensity range was revealed in 2020, whereas Snapdragon and Kirin have been going since 2007 and 2013 (announced; launched 2014), respectively. Of course, MediaTek has been making smartphone processors since 2003, so it’s not exactly the new kid on the block, but the Dimensity series has been taking the mobile phone world by storm this year.

This is further evidenced by the amount of SoCs shipped for Q2 2020 in the vital Chinese market. MediaTek managed to surpass Qualcomm with 38.3% share compared to 37.8% share. HiSilicon snagged 21.8% share and the tiny remainder share was taken up by “others”. Ironically, even though Huawei fully owns HiSilicon, it’s expected that the Chinese company’s business interests with MediaTek will help the latter firm see further shipment market share growth for the second half of 2020.