Unisoc T603: Just a binned T606?

If you are looking for a budget smartphone with decent performance, you might have come across the Itel A70. The Itel A70 was launched in October 2023. This phone has a peculiar feature: it uses a Unisoc Tiger T603 processor, a system-on-chip (SoC) that is shrouded in mystery.

The Unisoc T603 left a lot of tech enthusiasts scratching their heads because it came out of nowhere. Unisoc never officially released it and it is not listed on their website. Was this vaporware? What type of SoC is this?

What is a SoC and why does it matter? A SoC is a single chip that integrates all the components of a computer, such as the CPU cores, GPU, memory, storage, camera, connectivity, and more. A SoC determines the speed, power, efficiency, and features of a smartphone, so it is important to know what kind of SoC a phone has before buying it. As it turns out, this SoC does exist and that’s the point of this article.

The Unisoc Tiger T603 is a 4G LTE SoC that belongs to the T600 family, which also includes the T606, T610, T616, and T618. These SoCs are designed for lower mid-range, budget, and entry-level smartphones. They are made using a 12nm fabrication process.

Unisoc T603 Specs

The T603 has the following specifications:

Performance

At first glance, the T603 seems to be a decent SoC for any budget phone. However, there is something strange about it: it is almost identical to the Unisoc T606, another SoC from the same family. The only difference is that the T603 has a slightly higher clock speed for the big CPU cores, which are the ones that handle the heavy tasks. The T606 has both the big and small CPU cores running at 1.6GHz.

You might think that this means that the T603 is faster and better than the T606, but you would be wrong. According to the benchmarks from Kimovil and Chip guider, two reliable sources for SoC information, the T603 and the T606 score almost the same in various tests, such as AnTuTu, Geekbench, and GFXBench. Here are some of the results:

GeekBench 6 

• T606: 239,545
• T603: 240,000

AnTuTu 10 (single core/multi-core)

• T606: 350/1251
• T603: 351/1251

Armed with this information, we can clearly state that the Unisoc T603 is a budget-level SoC that can handle most apps fairly well. This is especially true when it is paired with enough RAM (at least 4GB). It can also compete with the likes of the Unisoc T606, Helio G80, Snapdragon 662, and Snapdragon 460.

Gaming

The T603 has a fairly decent Mali-G57 MP1 GPU. Just like the T606, it can handle a lot of native Android titles at mid to low settings. These include games such as eFootball mobile, Asphalt, PUBG mobile, EA FC mobile, Call of Duty mobile, Dream League, Candy Crush, Subway Surfers and so much more.

Note: This only holds true if the T603 is paired with 4GB RAM and runs a 64-bit operating system

Memory

The Unisoc T603 is armed with support for up to 8GB of LPPDR4x running at 1600MHz. This is more than good enough to get you through most apps, provided that the RAM size is up to 4GB.

Photography and Videography

Unisoc is not well known for its prowess when it comes to photography and videography. This T603 seems to lack an NPU of any sort and doesn’t have a very capable ISP. It can support cameras up to 24MP and can record/playback 1080p video at 60fps. These should be good enough in bright lights but do not expect too much.

Connectivity

For connectivity, the T603 supports 4G LTE (Cat. 7), Bluetooth 5, WiFi 5, and USB 2.0. These should suffice for the average user who just wants to connect to the Internet, connect Bluetooth peripherals, and transfer files to others.

Unisoc T603, just a binned T606?

As you can see, the difference between the T603 and the T606 is negligible as both SoCs are the same. This raises the question: why did Unisoc create the T603 in the first place? Why did they not just use the T606 for the Itel A70 and other phones?

One possible explanation is that the T603 is a binned version of the T606. What does that mean? Binning is a process where the manufacturers sort out the chips that are produced based on their quality and performance. Some chips may have defects or flaws that prevent them from reaching their full potential, so they are assigned to a lower category and sold as a different product. For example, a chip that was meant to be a Core i5 CPU might be downgraded and sold as a Core i3 CPU if it does not meet the standards.

This could be the case for the T603. Maybe some of the T606 chips were faulty or subpar, and instead of throwing them away, Unisoc decided to increase their clock speed slightly and rebrand them as the T603. This way, they could still make some profit from them and avoid wasting resources. This would also explain why Unisoc did not announce or promote the T603 as a new chip, because it is not really a new chip, but a recycled one.

Conclusion

Of course, this is just a speculation based on the available information. There could be other reasons why Unisoc created the T603, such as marketing, supply, or demand. However, the evidence seems to point to the binning theory as the most plausible one.

What do you think? Do you agree with this analysis? Do you have any other insights or opinions on the Unisoc T603 and the T606? Let us know in the comments below. We would love to hear from you.

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