Mediatek Helio A25 vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 660

Mediatek Helio A25

The Mediatek Helio A25 is an entry level ARM SoC for smartphones (mainly Android based) that was introduced in early 2020. It is manufactured in a 12 nm FinFET process and is equipped with 8 ARM Cortex-A53 CPU cores divided in two clusters. A performance cluster with 4 cores clocked at up to 1.8 GHz and a efficiency cluster clocked at up to 1.5 GHz.

Furthermore, the SoC integrates a LTE Cat.4 modem, a LPDDR3-933 / LPDDR4-1200 / LPDDR4x-1600 memory controller, a IMG PowerVR GE8320 graphics card and a 1080p30 video de- and encoder (H.265 decoding, H.264 encoding).

Qualcomm Snapdragon 660

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 (SD660) is a fast mid-range ARM-based SoC largely found on Android tablets and smartphones. Announced in mid 2017, the SD660 is the successor to the Snapdragon 625. It features 8 Kryo 260 cores (custom design, 64-Bit capable) that are divided in two clusters. A fast cluster of four cores with up to 2.2 GHz and a power saving efficiency cluster with up to 1.8 GHz. Both clusters can also used together.

In addition to the 8 CPU cores, the SoC integrates a mid range Adreno 512 GPU with a LPDDR4 memory controller (dual-channel 1866 MHz)  and supports Wi-Fi (802.11ac + MIMO, max. 867 Mbps), Bluetooth 5, and LTE (X12 LTE modem with up to 600 Mbps download and 150 Mbps upload).

Performance

In Benchmarks of the Oppo R11, the CPU part of the Snapdragon SD660 performs between former high end Socs like the Snapdragon 821 in the Pixel XL and the Snapdragon 835. The graphics performance is however much lower, as the Adreno 512 is only a slight upgrade of the older Adreno 510 (due to the higher clock speed).

CPU

The Snapdragon 660 is based on a similar concept as ARM's big.LITTLE, which combines a low power CPU cluster (2x Kyro clocked at up to 1.8 GHz) and a performance CPU cluster (2x Kyro clocked at up to 2.2 GHz). The clock speed of each cluster can be individually adjusted (but not per core) and the lowest clock speed is 310 MHz (unverified).

Power Consumption

Thanks to the new 14 nm process, the energy efficiency has been improved noticeably compared to its 20 nm predecessors.