Hello. Tonight, we’re going back in time—a time of fiery debates, overclocked expectations, and midrange madness. This post is titled Revisiting Snapdragon 720G vs Helio G90T, and for good reason. These two processors weren’t just chips—they were flags in the ground for two warring camps: Team Qualcomm and Team MediaTek.
And for those of us who lived through it, this wasn’t just about benchmark numbers. This was a golden era in mobile SoC history. A halcyon period, if you will.
⚙️ Background: A New Dawn for the Midrange
Before these two legends showed up, the Snapdragon 600 series ruled the midrange—not because it was the best, but because the alternatives were so… bleak. Helio P22, P35, and their ilk did the bare minimum. Qualcomm’s chips like the Snapdragon 625 and 636 simply survived longer thanks to better optimization, not because they were all that powerful.
I still remember how the Helio P60 in the Nokia X5 straight-up outperformed the Snapdragon 636 in the Nokia X6—until HMD shipped a shady update to nerf the P60. It was that kind of era. A weird mix of excitement and compromise.
But then the Snapdragon 700 series rolled in like a breath of fresh air. The Snapdragon 710 tried to shake things up, but honestly, I had an irrational dislike for it. Maybe it was the Realme vs Redmi battles, maybe not. Either way, it didn’t feel like a proper upgrade.
That changed with the Snapdragon 730—and it changed everything.
💥 The Clash: Snapdragon 720G vs Helio G90T
2020 was when the real fireworks began. Qualcomm brought the Snapdragon 720G, a chip that was better than the Snapdragon 730G and somehow cheaper. And no, they didn’t do that out of kindness. They did it because MediaTek had returned from the dead, dropped the Helio G90T, and basically said: “We’re back, baby!”
And boy, did MediaTek cook. The G90T delivered insane performance, smooth gaming, solid GPU output, and enough optimization—especially when paired with Xiaomi hardware—to give Qualcomm a scare. The Redmi Note 8 Pro with the G90T wasn’t just a good phone, it was a generational landmark.
Naturally, Qualcomm had to clap back. That clap was the 720G. And for the next two years, we saw what might be the last great midrange war.
📊 Snapdragon 720G vs Helio G90T – Spec Comparison
| Specs | Snapdragon 720G | Helio G90T | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | 2x Cortex A76 (2.3GHz)
6x Cortex A55 (1.8GHz) |
2x Cortex A76 (2.05GHz)
6x Cortex A55 (2.0GHz) |
720G wins |
| GPU | Adreno 618 | Mali G76 MC4 | G90T wins |
| ISA | ARMv8.2-A | ARMv8.2-A | Tie |
| Process | 8nm Samsung | 12nm TSMC | Tie |
| AnTuTu | 389,059 | 369,361 | 720G |
| Geek Bench | 570 single core
1700 multicore |
540 single core
1700 multicore |
720G |
| NPU (AI) | Hexagon 692 | MediaTek APU 2.0 | 720G |
| ISP | Spectra 350L (up to 192MP) | MediaTek ISP (64MP) | 720G |
| Camera | 192MP | 64MP | 720G |
| Video | 4K@30fps 1080p@60fps | 4K@30fps 1080p@60fps | Tie |
| Display | FHD+ (2520 x 1080p) | FHD+ (2520 x 1080p) | 720G |
| Modem | X15 LTE (800Mbps DL) | LTE Cat-12 (600Mbps DL) | 720G |
| BT | 5.1 | 5.0 | 720G |
| WiFi | Wi-Fi 6 | Wi-Fi 5 only | 720G |
🤺 The Great Debate
Owning a Redmi Note 9 Pro with Snapdragon 720G, I was firmly in Camp Qualcomm. But I wasn’t blind—the Mali G76 MC4 in the G90T was the better GPU. And if you were gaming hard on a budget phone, the Note 8 Pro with Helio G90T was your beast.
Still, the 720G had better thermal management, stronger ISP support, and power efficiency thanks to the 8nm process (vs the G90T’s 12nm). And for most users who weren’t just gaming, that balance mattered.
By 2021, the war cooled down. Qualcomm released the 732G and quietly dipped out of the lower midrange scene. MediaTek, on the other hand, doubled down and cloned the G90T into the Helio G95, G96, and eventually the G200.
🕰️ Rise and Fall: A Timeline
We didn’t realize how good we had it. In just 12 months, many of us jumped from Helio A22 and MT6739 to Snapdragon 720G and Helio G90T. It felt like we’d arrived. But all good things must come to an end.
Let’s look at how these chips fell from grace:
- In 2020: 720G ranked 22nd, G90T was 24th
- In 2021: 720G dropped to 48, G90T to 57
- By 2024: 720G was 78, G90T was 85
- Today: 720G is at 138, G90T sits at 143
That decline is steep, but also expected. Even the mighty Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2, which debuted at #7 in 2023, has already dropped to #34.
🧠 Final Thoughts
Revisiting Snapdragon 720G vs Helio G90T isn’t just about specs or synthetic benchmarks. It’s about a time when value, performance, and community debate intersected in the best way possible.
This was our golden era—when the gap between entry-level and midrange closed dramatically, and when choosing between two great chips actually meant something.
It was noisy. It was exciting. And for a while there, it really felt like we mattered in the grand tech conversation.
Here’s to the 720G. Here’s to the G90T. And here’s to a time when being a midrange buyer felt like a win.
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