Summary
- Mediatek just unveiled the new Dimensity 8400 all-performance processor aimed at the mid-range smartphone market.
- The Dimensity 8400 ditches little efficiency cores in favor of eight performance cores.
- Mediatek says this boosts multi-core performance by 41%, reduces power usage by 44%, and delivers 24% better graphic perfomance.
Any fan of the Android operating system should keep one eye on Mediatek. This upstart Taiwanese company is quietly becoming a major player in the mobile SOC space, and it just shook up the landscape with the introduction of the Dimensity 8400.
Mediatek just released this processor today (via Android Authority). It’s a remarkable design because it abandons small efficiency cores in favor of an all-performance CPU setup, which mirrors trends we’ve seen lately in flagship chipsets. But this is the first time we’ve seen such a design targeting mid-range devices, where efficiency is usually the name of the game.
This is a bold move for Mediatek
The Dimensity 8400 has eight Cortex-A725 cores clocked at 3.25GHz. There are no small efficiency cores. MediaTek claims this results in 41% faster multi-core performance over the last-gen Dimensity 8300. It also cuts peak power consumption by 44%, on paper at least.
Dropping little cores in a mid-range chip is a bold move because it could affect single-core performance, battery life, and heat management. Mediatek is clearly going after gaming devices and heavy media users. It could be a solid contender .The Mali-G720 MC7 GPU promises a 24% boost in graphics performance and 42% better efficiency. It can support WQHD+ 144Hz displays. This is flagship territory.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a 2024 chip without AI. The Dimensity 8400 comes with Mediatek’s NPU 880 to enable AI support for tasks like video recording and media generation. This chip also comes with 5G-Advanced capabilities and peak download speeds of 5.17Gbps.
Qualcomm might want to watch out
It’s a bold approach and could pay off. These specs put the Dimensity 8400 in direct competition with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7 series. However, nobody knows about real-world efficiency yet. Battery optimization has long been Mediatek’s Achilles heel, and dropping efficiency cores in a chip made for mid-range devices is a risky gamble.
That said, a shift toward all-performance cores could pay off if it translates into better user experiences and higher benchmark scores, especially with gaming. Mediatek says the first devices packing the new Dimensity 8400 will launch by the end of the year. Xiaomi and POCO are the most likely candidates.
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