Qualcomm’s quad core MSM8228 aims to battle out the Mediatek uprising!


Once seen as dormant and feeble, Mediatek chipsets have come a long way from powering low-cost cloned devices to being used in Sony and LG smartphones, and now enjoy much greater acceptance worldwide, more than ever before. This has made other internationally-renown fabricators like Qualcomm feel the heat, and the need to take action. There’s no doubt that Qualcomm follow Mediatek’s developments closely, we’ve even been treated to a witty response from them.

Mediatek came up with the MT6577 dual core processor last year, which essentially was the first dual-core to be featured in the budget segment. It was only after this launch that we started seeing low-cost Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8225 powered devices on the shore, which can be seen as a reaction to Mediatek’s stimulus.

However, with the quad core MT6589 and subsequently MT6589T, Mediatek threatened not only entry-level and mid-range, but high-end dominance as well; which has prompted Qualcomm to look further and come up with a competitor of their own. Reportedly, this very competitor from Qualcomm, known as the MSM8228 is already in the testing phase!

Qualcomm MSM8228 key features

  • 1.4GHz quad core, with Cortex A7 cores
  • 28nm manufacturing process
  • 450MHz Adreno 305 GPU
  • Support for 1080p displays and 13 mega-pixel cameras
  • On-board modem with 4G LTE and dual SIM support

Not only this, the upcoming chipset also boasts better power management, with up to 30% more efficiency when compared to other Cortex A7 based processors. Here’s how the chipset fares:

We have to admit, with more than 18,000 points on AnTuTu, the MSM8228 might be just what the doctor ordered for Qualcomm; support for 4G LTE would mean that Qualcomm gain an upper hand (Mediatek too are reported to be working on a 4G LTE chipset).

We don’t know for sure when we will be able to see MSM8228 powered devices. However, Qualcomm have just sparked off a very interesting battle which promises to make smartphones more affordable than ever before!

[Source]
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24 Comments

  1. Ramapatrikuna
    November 1, 2013

    I for one would opt for this over the MT6589 if the price of the resulting phone is about the same.

    None of the MT6589T phones I have used (Jiayu G4, Zopo C2, iOcean X7 Youth Turbo) feel “fast”. There is always some lag, especially in the graphics department. And MediaTek’s GPS support is atrocious, I hate having to use MobileUncle Tools just to make it work.

    • Rdmkr
      November 1, 2013

      I think cortex A7, the low budget CPU architecture, is to blame for that. It sacrifices performance consistency for raw throughput. On that note I don’t expect this thing to be much better.

      • Adrian
        February 5, 2014

        Cortex A7 won’t perform so well on 1080p screens with the single core gpu version of sgx544. On that note I can see this chip performing better due to the better gpu. On a 720p screen this will be ideal…I’m looking forward to it in the note 3 neo dual if the price drops to sub US 500.

  2. Adi
    November 1, 2013

    Is it not the Snapdragon 400 itself? As far as I remember, S400 has dual core and quad core versions. Dual core has 2 Krait cores with Adreno 305 and the quad core is the one mentioned here.

    • Rdmkr
      November 1, 2013

      Would be surprised if S400 didn’t have Krait cores rather than cortex A7… which would put it a whole league higher than anything mediatek makes. but then, qualcomm has done confusing things before by slapping the snapdragon label on everything they produce.

  3. ZecaMarol
    November 1, 2013

    I was surprised and pleased that the Qualcomm is developing a product that has the option dual sim.
    I hope the performance and price are competitive.

  4. Allanitomwesh
    November 1, 2013

    Mediatek shouldn’t be feeling too threatened considering this’ll hit the market with the MT6592 for what’ll probably be similar prices.

  5. Guest
    November 1, 2013

    I for one would opt for this over the MT6589 if the price of the resulting phone is about the same.

    None of the MT6589T phones I have used (Jiayu G4, Zopo C2, iOcean X7 Youth Turbo) feel “fast”. There is always some lag, especially in the graphics department. And MediaTek’s GPS support is atrocious, I hate having to use MobileUncle Tools just to make it work.

    • Guest
      November 1, 2013

      I think cortex A7, the low budget CPU architecture, is to blame for that. It sacrifices performance consistency for raw throughput. On that note I don’t expect this thing to be much better.

    • Adrian
      February 5, 2014

      Cortex A7 won’t perform so well on 1080p screens with the single core gpu version of sgx544. On that note I can see this chip performing better due to the better gpu. On a 720p screen this will be ideal…I’m looking forward to it in the note 3 neo dual if the price drops to sub US 500.

  6. Guest
    November 1, 2013

    Is it not the Snapdragon 400 itself? As far as I remember, S400 has dual core and quad core versions. Dual core has 2 Krait cores with Adreno 305 and the quad core is the one mentioned here.

    • Guest
      November 1, 2013

      Would be surprised if S400 didn’t have Krait cores rather than cortex A7… which would put it a whole league higher than anything mediatek makes. but then, qualcomm has done confusing things before by slapping the snapdragon label on everything they produce.

  7. anony
    November 1, 2013

    Adreno 305? No hope against SGX544. No sales.

    • Overloadedx
      November 2, 2013

      The Adreno 305 is almost 2x as fast as the SGX544 in 6589T in antutu bench 3d score….No hope?

    • November 2, 2013

      The problem with SGX 544 in MTK6589 chipset its clocked very low, and hence Adreno 305 performs better than it.

    • December 7, 2014

      what the fruck are you yapping about? sgx544 benches at 4.9 gflops…while 305 at 19 gflops…the real contender here is the mt6592…

      source:http://kyokojap.myweb.hinet.net/gpu_gflops/

  8. Guest
    November 1, 2013

    I was surprised and pleased that the Qualcomm is developing a product that has the option dual sim.
    I hope the performance and price are competitive.

  9. Guest
    November 1, 2013

    Mediatek shouldn’t be feeling too threatened considering this’ll hit the market with the MT6592 for what’ll probably be similar prices.

  10. Guest
    November 2, 2013

    Adreno 305? No hope against SGX544. No sales.

    • Guest
      November 2, 2013

      The Adreno 305 is almost 2x as fast as the SGX544 in 6589T in antutu bench 3d score….No hope?

    • Guest
      November 2, 2013

      The problem with SGX 544 in MTK6589 chipset its clocked very low, and hence Adreno 305 performs better than it.

    • azmi
      December 7, 2014

      what the fruck are you yapping about? sgx544 benches at 4.9 gflops…while 305 at 19 gflops…the real contender here is the mt6592…

      source:http://kyokojap.myweb.hinet.net/gpu_gflops/

  11. roberto tomás
    November 2, 2013

    I don’t think this is all correct. the specifications listed in the article point to a phone scoring roughly 13k, not 18k. I am really questioning the GPU and the 1.4Ghz, is it not any higher?

  12. Guest
    November 2, 2013

    I don’t think this is all correct. the specifications listed in the article point to a phone scoring roughly 13k, not 18k. I am really questioning the GPU and the 1.4Ghz, is it not any higher?