Get ready for a year of budget gaming phones with the new MediaTek Helio G70 SoC series

MediaTek has launched fresh additions to its Helio G SoC line. The G70 and G70T are directed at manufacturers that might consider making more affordable gaming-oriented phones compared to existing products powered by the G90 or G90T. However, their Taiwanese OEM also claims that the 2 new chipsets are "ideal for mainstream smartphone users".

The G70 and G70T feature their maker's HyperEngine game technology, which means it is capable of prioritizing its connectivity, processing and memory resources during gaming. On the other hand, it also increases power efficiency at the same time. This new series consist of octa-core chipsets, which, like the Dimensity 800 series, are made up of ARM Cortex-A75 and -A55 cores. However, in the G70s' case, the "small" A55s are clocked at 1.7GHz, not 2.0GHz.

The GPU here is the Mali G52, clocked at up to 820MHz and supporting FHD+ resolutions at best. It can encode 2K video at a maximum of 30 fps, or 1080p video at 60 fps. It supports the H.264 and H.265/HEVC codecs. The G70 processors also have the AI power necessary to support typical functions baked into the average smartphone OS, such as the object-recognition required for Google Lens, face-detection for Face Unlock, single- or dual-cam bokeh effects and Android Neural Networks API (Android NNAPI) compliance.

The G70 or G70T can complete phones with up to 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM at a maximum speed of 1800MHz, and internal storage of up to the Qualcomm's next-gen smartwatch SoC is now rumored to be called the Snapdragon Wear 3300eMMC 5.1 standard. In terms of rear cameras, there can be 1 48MP sensor or 2 at 16MP at best. These devices can have up to Cat. 7 LTE/4G, Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.0 and Beidou/Galileo/GLONASS GPS.

Therefore, these 2 new processors are not very far removed from their pre-existing mid-range counterparts. MediaTek has not mentioned when the G70 series will be available; however, judging by the G90s' uptake pattern, devices with either of the new SoCs could emerge within a matter of months.