Mediaek ready to launch MTK6290 4G LTE SoC

Ying HuaOctober 2, 2013

With 4G LTE ready to go mainstream in China, Chinesephone makers need a low-cost 4G LTE solution and Mediatek have one with the MTK6290.

Many Chinesephone fans are interesting to see what 8-core Mediatek powered phones will be offered over the coming month, but we might also want to keep an eye on the new MTK6290 SoC from the Taiwanese chip maker also.

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The MTK6290 is Mediatek’s firstchipset to support 4G LTE and is ready to go in to production as we speak. The processor is makes on a 28nm architecture and will support TD-LTE, FDD-LTE, TD-SCDMA, WCDMA, GSM and Edge networks.

It is likely that many Chinesephone makers will offer current phones in an updated guise featuring the LTE chip as well as 8-core updates before we begin to see all new devices based on the new chipsets.

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About the author
Ying Hua
I'm an avid gamer and a bit of a Ninja when it comes to gadgets and technology. When I'm not busy with the latest Android and iOS games and I can be found writing at Gizchina.com.

Dangi
October 2, 2013
They only need to tweak a bit the current 6589T, up the frecuency to 1.7 Ghz, include another GPU core (SGX544MP2 or MP3) include LTE and it will be a great seller.

Remco
October 2, 2013
What about 4G outside of china, like in europe? Supported or not?
- October 2, 2013
  There should be far less problems as every manufacturer seem to support both FD and TD lte networks. The socs all support it and manufacturers will at least release a version for each market but the way its going it seems like the same hardware will support both and the settings done in the firmware if they choose to be picky. I have seen many dual mode devices already out so I don’t think its a worry.
  I think this will be the most useful new chip for mtk. More than that 8 core thing.
  - zaikatanox
    October 3, 2013
    Not to mention that, unlike TD-SCDMA, TD-LTE is not exclusive to just China. While the core technology is developed by Chinese companies, it was actually already available in some other countries (Optus in Australia, Airtel in India, SoftBank in Japan, ClearWire in the US), before it’s even available in China.

Paul
October 2, 2013
I would rather say the most important is not LTE because the majority of the world does not have any freaking LTE but what everybody has and needs is a perfectly working GPS!!!! No words on that one?
- peter
  October 2, 2013
  True, I’d happily trade late for perfect GPS and higher GPU performance. I get around 21 Mb/so download on my star s5 with h+ so yeah…
  - FJorgeR
    December 22, 2013
    I too agree with Andi about the GPS (it’s all about gps antenna implementation):
    I have a zp990 with a really bad GPS antenna (and it costed me more than 360 usd), although my “120 usd” Giayu G3T is perfect ;).
    But I have to agree with you regarding a better GPU…
    Regards,
    fjorger.
- Andi
  October 2, 2013
  GPS is the phone manufacturer’s problem. The antennas they use are up to much. A Lenovo, Huawei or ZTE with a Mediatek chip have good GPS performance it is only the smaller phone makers who try to save a few $ in this dept.
  - ja
    October 3, 2013
    I agree to Andi
    I had Zopo C2, Vowney V5, Faea F2S, Zopo zp810 and they all have different reception quality. GPS on Zopo C2 works very good, while Vowney V5 barely can cope being outside in perfect conditions, Faea F2S GPS works well too (exept 3G reception keeps dropping out sometimes in certain areas, while C2 in this case is perfect, even ZP810 works).
    In general depends on how well antenna is build.

RobertNL
October 2, 2013
There are 2 big techniques for LTE:
LTE-FDD
LTE-TDD (also called TD-LTE).
So MTK is supporting both of them that is great news 🙂
(Here) in Europe most (so not all) providers use FDD-LTE (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LTE_networks) and the most used bands are: 3, 7 and 20.
In Asia they tend to use TDD-LTE more but there are some providers using FDD-LTE. The providers using FDD-LTE use the 3 and 7 band a lot to as you can see in the link.
I think you can be quite assured that it will be compatible with one or more providers in most EU countries. 🙂 (we probably will only miss the 20 band that is also used a lot in the EU).
Just reading/learning this here so correct me if i did something completely wrong 😉

Sam
October 2, 2013
Keep in mind, it takes approximately 13 weeks to produce a microchip wafer not to mention if they have to do further re-spins and the time it takes for shipping and for manufacturers to build the phones and test them so we won’t be seeing anything until next year at least.
- quazier
  October 2, 2013
  uhm, 13 weeks to produce a wafer? only thing I can think of with such an odd claim is; Source?
  Or do you count the time from the time they mine the silicium?

Guest
October 2, 2013
Hopefully they go with Cortex A12 cores instead of A7 cores like MTK6589 procs.
Guest
October 2, 2013
They only need to tweak a bit the current 6589T, up the frecuency to 1.7 Ghz, include another GPU core (SGX544MP2 or MP3) include LTE and it will be a great seller.
Guest
October 2, 2013
What about 4G outside of china, like in europe? Supported or not?
- Guest
  October 3, 2013
  There should be far less problems as every manufacturer seem to support both FD and TD lte networks. The socs all support it and manufacturers will at least release a version for each market but the way its going it seems like the same hardware will support both and the settings done in the firmware if they choose to be picky. I have seen many dual mode devices already out so I don’t think its a worry.
  I think this will be the most useful new chip for mtk. More than that 8 core thing.
- Guest
  October 3, 2013
  Not to mention that, unlike TD-SCDMA, TD-LTE is not exclusive to just China. While the core technology is developed by Chinese companies, it was actually already available in some other countries (Optus in Australia, Airtel in India, SoftBank in Japan, ClearWire in the US), before it’s even available in China.

Guest
October 2, 2013
I would rather say the most important is not LTE because the majority of the world does not have any freaking LTE but what everybody has and needs is a perfectly working GPS!!!! No words on that one?
- Guest
  October 3, 2013
  True, I’d happily trade late for perfect GPS and higher GPU performance. I get around 21 Mb/so download on my star s5 with h+ so yeah…
- Guest
  October 3, 2013
  GPS is the phone manufacturer’s problem. The antennas they use are up to much. A Lenovo, Huawei or ZTE with a Mediatek chip have good GPS performance it is only the smaller phone makers who try to save a few $ in this dept.
- Guest
  October 3, 2013
  I agree to Andi
  I had Zopo C2, Vowney V5, Faea F2S, Zopo zp810 and they all have different reception quality. GPS on Zopo C2 works very good, while Vowney V5 barely can cope being outside in perfect conditions, Faea F2S GPS works well too (exept 3G reception keeps dropping out sometimes in certain areas, while C2 in this case is perfect, even ZP810 works).
  In general depends on how well antenna is build.
- FJorgeR
  December 22, 2013
  I too agree with Andi about the GPS (it’s all about gps antenna implementation):
  I have a zp990 with a really bad GPS antenna (and it costed me more than 360 usd), although my “120 usd” Giayu G3T is perfect ;).
  But I have to agree with you regarding a better GPU…
  Regards,
  fjorger.

Guest
October 2, 2013
There are 2 big techniques for LTE:
LTE-FDD
LTE-TDD (also called TD-LTE).
So MTK is supporting both of them that is great news 🙂
(Here) in Europe most (so not all) providers use FDD-LTE (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LTE_networks) and the most used bands are: 3, 7 and 20.
In Asia they tend to use TDD-LTE more but there are some providers using FDD-LTE. The providers using FDD-LTE use the 3 and 7 band a lot to as you can see in the link.
I think you can be quite assured that it will be compatible with one or more providers in most EU countries. 🙂 (we probably will only miss the 20 band that is also used a lot in the EU).
Just reading/learning this here so correct me if i did something completely wrong 😉

Guest
October 3, 2013
Keep in mind, it takes approximately 13 weeks to produce a microchip wafer not to mention if they have to do further re-spins and the time it takes for shipping and for manufacturers to build the phones and test them so we won’t be seeing anything until next year at least.
- Guest
  October 3, 2013
  uhm, 13 weeks to produce a wafer? only thing I can think of with such an odd claim is; Source?
  Or do you count the time from the time they mine the silicium?

Allanitomwesh
October 3, 2013
The 8 core MT6592 doesn’t have the LTE bands?
Mike
October 3, 2013
Will these come in dual sim flavours?
mike
October 3, 2013
Will they make this a quad core ?
Guest
October 3, 2013
The 8 core MT6592 doesn’t have the LTE bands?
Alex
October 3, 2013
Will this chipset support the U.S. 4G LTE systems ???
- Alex
  October 5, 2013
  Good grief let’s not all answer at once… LOL., really? Nobody has any comments on U. S. 4G LTE compatibility as far as actual 4G speeds, being able to function in the US on this chipsets?
  - October 5, 2013
    Mediatek will more than likely release a version of the MTK6290 which will work in the U.S. Blu and Alcatel will be the brands to watch

Guest
October 3, 2013
Will these come in dual sim flavours?
Guest
October 3, 2013
Will they make this a quad core ?
Guest
October 4, 2013
Will this chipset support the U.S. 4G LTE systems ???
- Guest
  October 6, 2013
  Good grief let’s not all answer at once… LOL., really? Nobody has any comments on U. S. 4G LTE compatibility as far as actual 4G speeds, being able to function in the US on this chipsets?
- Guest
  October 6, 2013
  Mediatek will more than likely release a version of the MTK6290 which will work in the U.S. Blu and Alcatel will be the brands to watch