Mediatek announces two new processors for tablets

At the Hong Kong Electronics Fair, the chipmaker Mediatek announced two new quad-core ARM SoCs, MT8163 and MT8735. Both of them are built on the 64-bit ARMv8 architecture and are intended for use in tablets running Android 5.1 Lollipop. MT8163 is listed as capable of driving Full HD displays at 60 Hz or HD at 120 Hz. Presumably, the same is true for MT8735, but the released information doesn't confirm that.

Features common to both SoCs include FM radio support, dual-band (2.4 and 5 GHz) Wi-Fi (exact supported standards unknown so far, but most likely no 802.11ac due to price constraints), Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS. MT8735 additionally supports navigation via the Russian GLONASS and the Chinese Beidou systems and includes an LTE radio (compatible with both FDD and TDD networks). Advanced camera features such as PIP (picture-in-picture) and VIV (video-in-video) are also advertised for MT8735.

According to the information at Mediatek's stand (see picture below), first products containing the new chips are supposed to release already this month. Most likely, they will first appear in various Asian markets, where Mediatek's growing portfolio of budget SoCs is starting to pose a serious threat to Qualcomm.

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