HiSilicon Kirin 960s vs HiSilicon Kirin 655 vs MediaTek MT8161

HiSilicon Kirin 960s

The HiSilicon Kirin 960S is an ARM based mid-range octa-core SoC for smartphones and tablets, which was introduced with the 2018 10.5-inch Huawei MediaPad M5. Compared to the normal Kirin 960, the 960S offers an additional NPU for AI calculations from the Kirin 970. Looks like to be slower clocked than the older Kirin 960.

Besides 8 CPU cores (4x Cortex-A73, 4x Cortex-A53), the SoC is also equipped with a modern Mali-G71 MP8 graphics adapter, a dual-channel LPDDR4 memory controller as well as an LTE Cat. 12/13 modem. It is one of the fastest ARM SoCs in the end of 2016. The Kirin 960 is manufactured in a modern 16-nm process at TSMC.

HiSilicon Kirin 655

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The HiSilicon Kirin 655 is an ARM-based octa-core SoC for mid-range smartphones and tablets. It was announced late 2016 and features eight ARM Cortex-A53 cores. Four cores can be clocked with up to 1.7 GHz (power saving cores) and four with up to 2.1 GHz (performance cores). The difference to the older Kirin 650 is the 100 MHz higher clock speed of the performance cores.

Furthermore, a ARM Mali-T830 MP2 graphics card (at 600 MHz or 900 MHz with 40.8 GFLOPS), a 64-Bit LPDDR3 memory controller and a dual-sim capable LTE Cat. 6 (max. 300 MBit/s and GSM, WCDMA, UMTS, HSPA+) radio are integrated in the SoC. The processor performance can be compared with the older Kirin 930 and therefore sufficient for daily usage as browsing and non demanding apps. High-end SoCs with Cortex-A57 or A72 cores however should be noticeably faster. The SoC is produced in a modern 16nm FinFET process and is therefore very power efficient.

MediaTek MT8161

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The MediaTek MT8161 is an ARM based entry-level to mid-range SoC for (Android based) tablets. It offers four ARM Cortex-A53 processor cores (quad-core) that are clocked with up to 1.3 GHz. Furthermore, an ARM Mali-720 graphics card, a LPDDR3 memory controller (e.g., accessing 1 GB in the Lenovo Tab 2 A8-50), Bluetooth 4.0 and dual-band 802.11 b/g/n are integrated in the SoC.

The performance is situated in the entry level of 2015 and often similar to the Kirin 910T (see benchmark below).

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Model

HiSilicon Kirin 960s

HiSilicon Kirin 655

MediaTek MT8161

Series

Mediatek

Codename

Cortex-A73/-A53

Cortex-A53

Series: Cortex-A53

HiSilicon Kirin 970	2.4 GHz	8 / 8	Cortex-A73/-A53
HiSilicon Kirin 960	2.4 GHz	8 / 8	Cortex-A73/-A53
HiSilicon Kirin 960s «	2.1 GHz	8 / 8	Cortex-A73/-A53
HiSilicon Kirin 710	2.2 GHz	8 / 8	Cortex-A73/-A53
HiSilicon Kirin 710A	2 GHz	8 / 8	Cortex-A73/-A53

JLQ JR510	1.5 - 2 GHz	8 / 8	Cortex-A53
HiSilicon Kirin 935	2.2 GHz	8 / 8	Cortex-A53
HiSilicon Kirin 659	2.36 GHz	8 / 8	Cortex-A53
HiSilicon Kirin 658	2.35 GHz	8 / 8	Cortex-A53
HiSilicon Kirin 655 «	2.1 GHz	8 / 8	Cortex-A53
HiSilicon Kirin 650	2 GHz	8 / 8	Cortex-A53
HiSilicon Kirin 930	2 GHz	8 / 8	Cortex-A53
HiSilicon Kirin 620	1.2 GHz	8 / 8	Cortex-A53
MediaTek MT8163 V/A 1.5 GHz	1.5 GHz	4 / 4	Cortex-A53
MediaTek MT8163 V/B 1.3 GHz	1.3 GHz	4 / 4	Cortex-A53
MediaTek MT8161	1.3 GHz	4 / 4	Cortex-A53
Marvell Armada PXA1908	1.2 GHz	4 / 4	Cortex-A53

JLQ JR510	1.5 - 2 GHz	8 / 8	Cortex-A53
HiSilicon Kirin 935	2.2 GHz	8 / 8	Cortex-A53
HiSilicon Kirin 659	2.36 GHz	8 / 8	Cortex-A53
HiSilicon Kirin 658	2.35 GHz	8 / 8	Cortex-A53
HiSilicon Kirin 655	2.1 GHz	8 / 8	Cortex-A53
HiSilicon Kirin 650	2 GHz	8 / 8	Cortex-A53
HiSilicon Kirin 930	2 GHz	8 / 8	Cortex-A53
HiSilicon Kirin 620	1.2 GHz	8 / 8	Cortex-A53
MediaTek MT8163 V/A 1.5 GHz	1.5 GHz	4 / 4	Cortex-A53
MediaTek MT8163 V/B 1.3 GHz	1.3 GHz	4 / 4	Cortex-A53
MediaTek MT8161 «	1.3 GHz	4 / 4	Cortex-A53
Marvell Armada PXA1908	1.2 GHz	4 / 4	Cortex-A53

Clock

2100 MHz

1300 MHz

Cores / Threads

8 / 8

4 / 4

Technology

16 nm

28 nm

Features

ARM Mali-G71 MP8 GPU, 4x Cortex-A73 (2.4 GHz) + 4x Cortex-A53 (1.8 GHz, big.LITTLE), 2x 32 Bit LPDDR4 Memory Controller

ARMv8-ISA, Mali-T830 MP2, Dual SIM LTE (Cat. 6), LPDDR3 Memory Controller

LP-DDR3 memory controller, 1080p video encode, 1080p video decode, embedded GPS / GLONASS / BeiDou module, Bluetooth 4.0, FM radio support, ARM Jazelle, ARM TrustZone

iGPU

ARM Mali-G71 MP8 ( - 900 MHz)

ARM Mali-T830 MP2 (900 MHz)

ARM Mali-T720 MP2

Architecture

ARM

Announced