MediaTek has recently released two new SoCs into the market. These are the MediaTek Dimensity 8020 and 8050.
Both the MediaTek Dimensity 8020 and 8050 are supposed to be midrangers, upper midrangers. However, the Dimensity 8050 does stray firmly into what is considered flagship killer territory.
This new wave of SoCs like the Dimensity 8020 and 8050 and others like the Exynos 1330, 1380 and Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 etc. does indicate a shift in how SoC manufacturers are thinking.
The bar for what is considered upper midrange has been raised from Cortex A76 to Cortex A78. This upgrade means a huge injection of CPU power into the midrange and MediaTek are taking full advantage of it.
Read: MediaTek are looking to rebrand their SoCs
MediaTek Dimensity 8020
The Dimensity 8020 is the weaker of the two SoCs but that does not in anyway mean that it is a bad SoC, absolutely not. It is more powerful than almost 80% of the SoCs used on smartphones today.
Key specs
- Big Cores: 2 ARM Cortex A78 (2.6GHz)
- Small cores: 6 ARM Cortex A55 (2.0GHz)
- GPU: ARM Mali G77 MC9
- Fab: 6nm TSMC
- ISA: ARMv8
- RAM: LPDDR4x (4266Mbps)
- Storage: UFS 3.1
- ISP: MediaTek Imagiq HDR-ISP
- Camera: 108MP maximum support
- Video: 4K @30fps
- Gaming: HyperEngine
- Display: FHD+ (144Hz), QHD (90Hz)
- Modem: Helio M70: 5G (4.7Gbps downlink), 4G LTE (Cat.19), WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.2
Performance
A good look at the CPU cores and GPU on this SoC shows that there is very decent juice on this SoC. It uses 2 A78 cores (2.6GHz) for heavy tasks, 6 A55 cores (2.0GHz) for its light tasks and a very capable Mali G77 MC9 GPU for its graphics. These specs can handle nearly every app, game and/or task thrown at them. The Dimensity 8020 is also built on a 6nm TSMC process so this should ensure that it runs cool and efficient. Throttling shouldn’t be too much of an issue. Please do note that despite the Dimensity name, this is still a last gen ARMv8 chip.
Multimedia
On the camera side of things, the ISP supports up to 108MP cameras and can do 4K video. It supports FHD+ displays with refresh rates of up to 144Hz and QHD displays with refresh rates of up to 90Hz. For Gaming, there is the HyperEngine. The HyperEngine helps to raise the CPU and GPU clock speeds so that the chipset performs better during gaming. It also helps with network latency and refresh rates. The Dimensity 8020 also has support for LPDDR4x (4266MHz) RAM and UFS 3.1 storage.
Connectivity
For connectivity, there is the Helio M70, a 5G capable modem on board with support for all network generations (2G to 5G), WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2.
Overall, you could never really go wrong with this SoC.
MediaTek Dimensity 8050
The Dimensity 8050 is the more powerful of the two SoCs and not just that. It is more powerful than the average Midrange SoC, thus in terms of performance, you’ll find it on the flagship killer side of things. However, for all its power, the Dimensity 8050 isn’t new, nope. It’s a rebranded Dimensity 1200.
Key specs
- Prime Cores: 1 ARM Cortex A78 (3.0GHz)
- Big Cores: 3 ARM Cortex A78 (2.6GHz)
- Small cores: 4 ARM Cortex A55 (2.0GHz)
- GPU: ARM Mali G77 MC9
- Fab: 6nm TSMC
- ISA: ARMv8
- RAM: LPDDR4x (4266Mbps)
- Storage: UFS 3.1
- ISP: MediaTek Imagiq HDR-ISP
- Camera: 200MP maximum support
- Video: 4K @30fps
- Gaming: HyperEngine
- Display: FHD+ (168Hz), QHD (90Hz)
- Modem: Helio M70: 5G (4.7Gbps downlink), 4G LTE (Cat.19), WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.2
Performance
Like I said earlier, the Dimensity 8050 is not your average upper midrange SoC. Most upper midrangers use a big.LITTLE 2+6 microarchitecture. The 8050 on the other hand uses a DynamIQ 1+3+4 configuration with a prime core for more power. The prime core here is a Cortex A78 clocked at 3.0GHz. Then the big cores are 3 A78 cores for heavy tasks and 4 A55 cores for light tasks. For graphics, there is a very capable Mali G77 MC9 GPU. These specs can and will handle most apps, games and tasks thrown at them. The Dimensity 8050 is built on a 6nm TSMC process so this should ensure that it runs cool and shouldn’t throttle much. Do note that despite the Dimensity name, this is still a last gen ARMv8 chip.
Multimedia
On the camera side of things, the ISP supports up to 200MP cameras and can do 4K video. It supports FHD+ displays with refresh rates of up to 168Hz and QHD displays with refresh rates of up to 90Hz. For Gaming, there is the HyperEngine. The HyperEngine helps to raise the clock speed during gaming so that the chipset performs better during gaming. It also helps with network latency as well. This SoC also has support for LPDDR4x (4266MHz) RAM and UFS 3.1 storage.
Connectivity
For connectivity, there is a Helio M70 5G capable modem on board with support for all network generations (2G to 5G), WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the MediaTek Dimensity 8020 and 8050 are very solid SoCs on paper that promise a lot. MediaTek has truly come a long way and have upped their offerings. All that’s left to see is their real life performance.
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