Mediatek MT8321 vs MediaTek MT6572 vs Mediatek MT6589

Mediatek MT8321

The Mediatek MT8321 is a low-cost ARM SoC (System on a Chip) mainly used in smartphones. It is most likely manufactured in 28 nm and integrates a quad-core Cortex-A7 processor and a ARM Mali-400 MP2. The CPU cores are clocked at up to 1.3 GHz while the GPU is clocked at up to 500 MHz. Furthermore, the chip includes a EDGE / HSPA+ / WDCDMA radio and 802.11 b/g/n WiFi. The integrated single channel memory controller supports LPDDR3 RAM.

Performance

Since the Cortex-A7 architecture is somewhat slower than a Krait or Cortex-A9 design at the same clock speeds, the performance of the MT8121 is just below Nvidia's Tegra 3 or the Samsung Exynos 4412. The PowerVR SGX 544 is also just a low-cost solution not designed for ultra-high resolution displays or very demanding games.

MediaTek MT6572

The dual-core Mediatek MT6572 is an entry-level ARM SoC found in a number of Android smartphones and tablets. It contains two Cortex-A7 CPU cores and an ARM Mali-400 graphics card. The CPU cores are typically clocked at 1.2 GHz and the GPU core at 500 MHz. Furthermore, an LPDDR2 memory controller, a 2G/3G (HSPA+) radio, 720p video decoder, WLAN, Bluetooth and GPS modules are integrated onto the chip. 

Performance

As the Cortex A7 architecture is slightly slower per clock than the older Cortex-A9 or Krait cores, the CPU performance is approximately on the same level as a Samsung Exynos 4210 or similar. The ARM Mali-400 GPU is only an entry-level graphics card unsuited for demanding Android 3D games.

Power Consumption

Due to the power-efficient Cortex-A7 cores and the 28 nm manufacturing process, the power consumption of the Mediatek MT6572 is low enough to be used in smaller smartphones.

Mediatek MT6589

The MediaTek MT6589 (previously known as the TMK6588) is an SoC for budget Android tablets and smartphones. It is manufactured in 28 nm and offers a quad-core Cortex-A7 processor, a PowerVR SGX 544 GPU, 1080p30 video encoding and decoding, 802.11n WLAN, Bluetooth 4.0 and radios for Dual-SIM UMTS HSPA+, GPS and FM. The performance is similar to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 Series and adequate for everyday tasks like browsing.