MediaTek’s 10-Core Helio X20 Ships Next Month; MediaTek Helio X25 10-core chipset unveiled
MediaTek says its 10-core Helio X20 processors will hit the market next month. The announcement comes ten months after the Helio X20 was first launched. The MediaTek also unveiled a slightly improved and more powerful Helio X25 processor. The new Helio X25 processor comes with a host of improvements, it will be exclusive to the upcoming Meizu Pro 6 smartphone, which is rumored to come with 6GB of RAM and 128GB internal storage. The Helio X25 10-core processor has a three-cluster design, two-Cortex A72 cores, and eight Cortex A53 cores.
The Helio X20 directly competes with Qualcomm’s latest flagship processor, the Snapdragon 820. The Snapdragon 820 was first unveiled in August last year.
The Helio X20 is built on top of a tri-cluster design which allows it to draw 30 percent less power compared to the conventional dual-cluster chipsets. In fact, at the time of launch, MediaTek claimed that the Helio X20 was world’s first mobile processor to have tri-cluster CPU architecture, which houses three processor clusters. Other technical specifications of the Helio X20 processor include one cluster of two ARM Cortex-A72 cores (clocked at 2.5GHz for extreme performance), and two clusters of four ARM Cortex-A53 cores (one cluster clocked at 2GHz for medium loads, one clocked at 1.4GHz for light activities).
It also comes with features such as SilkSwipe for improved touchscreen responsiveness and MiraVision CrystalView for smooth 120fps video playback and recording.
| Processors | MediaTek Helio X10 | MediaTek Helio X20 |
| Process | 28nm HPM | 20nm |
| Apps CPU | 8x Cortex-A53, up to 2GHz | 2x Cortex-A72 @ 2.5GHz 4x Cortex-A53 @ 2.0GHz 4x Cortex-A53 @ 1.4GHz |
| Memory | 2x LPDDR3 POP 800MHz up to 4GB eMMC 5.0 |
2x LPDDR3 POP 933MHz up to 4GB eMMC 5.1 |
| Camera | 21MP @ 30fps w / ZSD Dual ISP |
32MP @ 24fps / 25MP @ 30 fps w/ZSD Dual ISP w/Improved 3A/denoise / demonsalc/sharpness/Native3D |
| Video Decode | 4Kx2K 30fps H.264/265 | 4Kx2K 10 bit 30fps H.264/265/VP9, 30% power improvement |
| Video Encode | 4Kx2K 30fps H.265 | 4Kx2K 30fps H.265 w/HDR, 40% power improvement |
| Graphics | IMG G6200 700 MHz | ARM Mali GPU |
| Display | WQXGA 2560×1600 60fps FHD 1920×1080 120fps w/8 HW Blending Layer |
WQXGA 2560×1600 60fps FHD 1920×1080 120fps w/12 HW Blending Layer |
| Modem | LTE FDD/TDD R9 Cat-4 (150/50Mbps) DC-HSPA+,TD-SCDMA,EDGE |
LTE FDD/TDD R11 Cat-6 with 20+20 CA (300/50Mbps) DC-HSPA+, TD-SCDMA,EDGE CDMA2000 1x/EVDO Rev.A (SRLTE) LTE/GPS Co-clock Supported |
| RF | Single RF for LTE/WCDMA/TD/EDGE 8/8 Primary/Diversity RX Ports |
Single RF for LTE/WCDMA/TD/EDGE/C2K 14/14 Primary/Diversity RX Ports |
| Connectivity | External Wi-Fi 802.11ac (MT6630) GPS//Glonass/Beidou, BT/FM |
Integrated Wi-Fi 802.11ac w/throughout up to 280Mbps GPS/Glonass/Beidou w/ Improved TTFF & Drift, BT/FM |
The MediaTek Helio X25 processor has a clock speed of 2.5GHz for Cortex A72 cluster, which is slightly faster than the MediaTek Helio X20. Another change comes in the form of Mali-T880 MP4 GPU, which is now clocked at 850MHz compared to 780MHz on the MediaTek Helio X20. The MediaTek Helio X25 chipset also supports single camera sensor up to 25-megapixels and dual camera sensors up to 13-megapixels. With support for 4K video recording, fast charging, Category 6 LTE and VoLTE, Helio X25 is also compatible with Vulkan graphics API.
