LG Velvet with more powerful MediaTek Dimensity 1000C chip comes to T-Mobile

LG has surprised with the launch of a new, more powerful, version of its LG Velvet upper mid-range smartphone. Until now, the Velvet has come in two variants -- the mainstream Snapdragon 765G model and a Snapdragon 845 4G model. A new version just announced for T-Mobile is powered by the new MediaTek Dimensity 1000C, which on paper, should be the most powerful iteration of the handset yet as it features the similar high-performance ARM-based cores as found on the pricey Snapdragon 865 and 865+ chipsets.

The Snapdragon 765G SoC features one Prime Cortex-A76-based core clocked at 2.3 GHz and one performance Cortex-A76-based core. This is joined by six efficiency Cortex-A55 cores clocked at 1.8 GHz. While the MediaTek Dimensity 1000C is no Snapdragon 865+ killer, it is in a similar ballpark as far as its underlying architecture goes. It features four high-performance Cortex-A77 cores clocked at 2 GHz and four efficiency Cortex-A55 cores also clocked at 2 GHz. The Snapdragon 865, by comparison, features one Prime Cortex-A77-based core clocked at 2.84 GHz and three performance Cortex-A77-based cores along with four Cortex-A55-based cores clocked at 1.8 GHz.

With the T-Mobile MediaTek Dimensity 1000C-powered Velvet also sporting 5G connectivity, it looks like it could well be the LG Velvet version to get, particularly if you are based in the US. The advantage in choosing the MediaTek chip for its customers is that it is likely that the MediaTek chip is priced similarly to what LG is paying Qualcomm for its Snapdragon 765G parts. The only potential downside is that this variant might take a little longer to get Android updates from LG as software updates for this model will need to go through a separate validation process.