Open Thread: Which company will be first with a 4G LTE Mediatek phone?

AndiMay 11, 2014

Mediatek enabled 4G LTE processors are the next big ingredient Chinese smartphone companies want to get their hands on to start baking their next devices, but who do you think will be first?

Mediatek have made a living by being the go to company for Chinese phone manufacturers who want devices which have the latest features but don’t break the bank. Since the days of dual-core ponds, to today’s octacore device, Mediatek chips are the processors of choice by large and small Chinese brands and even some international names (HTC, Sony etc).

However, the Taiwanese giant has been a little slow with LTE, and are already seeing old customers jump ship due to the lack of a LTE Mediatek processor. Both Oppo and Vivo have had to use Qualcomm chips in their mid-range LTE phones, and if a Mediatek alternative doesn’t arrive soon we will probably see more companies doing the same.

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Who will be first with a LTE Mediatek phone?

The fact is though that the MTK LTE chips are coming, they will be more affordable than the competition and (from specs and rumours) could really be the first Mediatek processors to help the brand go more mainstream, the question is who will be first?

Zopo are high on my list of contenders, they were one of the first to announce an octacore phone last year and could pull of something similar with LTE. Other options are TCL, ZTE and even Xiaomi.

Or, could we be looking at a bigger surprise? Could Meizu be the first customers of LTE MT6595 processors? Or will rumours become reality with a Nexus 6 running MTK phone?

Which company do you think will launch first? Who do you want to see launch first? Let us know in the comments section below.

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About the author
Andi

- May 11, 2014
  Do you think it will be an all new model or will they update the ZP998 with LTE?
  - The Chosen One
    May 11, 2014
    I think they would first upgrade the ZP998 as planned to kitkat within the next 30days.
    Then we’d get an LTE updated ZP998 after which towards the end of August we’ll get a brand newly modeled 4G LTE Octa Core Zopo along with some other LTE quad, hexa and maybe even a dual core Zopo model

realjjj
May 11, 2014
Who cares , what’s the price of LTE per GB and how much traffic does an average person do over it? Is that really worth any kind of hype? The industry loves to hype LTE to squeeze more money out of ignorant customers and the the press loves to just run with it.
On the other hand wifi ac sounds a bit more exciting.
- Tiah Oon Tjoe
  May 11, 2014
  actually, after experiencing LTE for myself I don’t think it’s just a hype. It’s amazing =)
  Carriers in my country don’t charge extra for LTE, as long as you subscribe to a 1gb data plan and above, you are automatically entitled for LTE. Since i DO need that data anyways. It’s worth it
  - Rob
    May 12, 2014
    LTE could be great but I think that for many people its irrelevant. Here in the UK I won’t have 4G available for at least another 2-3 years in my area and I’m sure by then there all phones will be LTE enabled anyway! I think many readers on this site are in the same position and only a lucky few have a reliable 4G connection.
    - Tiah Oon Tjoe
      May 12, 2014
      I agree, in fact i completely understand it. My point wasn’t whether it was a must have. I’m just saying that LTE is amazing and that it isn’t a hype. Not whether it’s relavant or not.
      - Rob
        May 12, 2014
        If 4G offers the promised speed it would be like the move from dial up internet to broadband, a massive difference. Some people are happy with what they have because they have experienced anything different. 5 or so years ago we didn’t really have smart phones or feel the need for them, now we can’t live without them, the same will happen with 4G
        
        mfmx
        May 14, 2014
        If you already have a good 3G network (30 ms ping and 20 MBit/s download speeds) then LTE isn’t that much of a difference.
        1-2 years ago I could get 100 Mbit/s download speed and 50 Mbit/s upload speeds on LTE here, but now the speeds a much lower because all the phones and broadband routers use LTE.
        For actually doing things on the mobile phone, the difference was always small. For downloading big files on a tablet or computer it would make more of a difference.
        For China Mobile customers the difference is bigger because the TD-SCDMA network wasn’t so hot, but for Europeans with HSDPA+ not so much…
        
        Rob
        May 14, 2014
        Well you’re very lucky with those speeds. My ping time is around 83 ms with a download speed of 1 MBit/s. You have to love EE over here as all they keep doing is pushing their 4G service when they still can’t do 3G or even 2G (calls cut out, texts don’t always come through etc..) They recently phoned me trying to sell me a 4G handset trying to convince me that my 3G speed would improve, which considering the poor signal would be very impressive! lol
        mfmx
        May 14, 2014
        That sounds terrible. I was in the UK recently and used 3 UK and got crappy speeds (1 Mbit/s and below) but I assumed it was some error with the APN of my virtual provider.

Lotfius
May 12, 2014
I think, as usual, there will be plenty of announcements and we’ll waits fews weeks (months maybe).
After that :
– first, we will probabely see a new note 3 comming from a noname factory (they don’t test their phones as long as the others)
– after that, mid-range manufacturers will upgrade their flag-ships (zopo, TCL, thl firsts and Jiayu the last 🙂
– Top level manufacturers will probabely upgread their entry-level phones (redmi for xiaomi and honor c for huawei) but I don’t think there will be any new model comming from them just for the new mtk’s

Rob
May 12, 2014
If we go back to previous incarnations of MT equipped phones, Tianhe released the first 6589T phone and Jiake the first 6592 phone, do don’t think zopo will be the first but they will definitely be up there. My money’s on one of the aforementioned companies to do it.
Allanitomwesh
May 12, 2014
My money is on TCL,they’ll have the TD China Version out quick (actual availability) and then the Alcatel variant later on with WCDMA

Josef
May 12, 2014
I cannot honestly see a Nexus with a Mediatek CPU unless GPS improves a lot. It would be a huge backlash from costumers if they experienced a big dropa in navigation quality on their Nexii. Or is the 6595 supposed to be better? My 6592-equipped Jiayu G4S is great for the money, but GPS is poor.
- alon
  May 12, 2014
  Trg the Doogee DG2014 with MTK6582 and you will be ammazed how good mediatek GPS can be – bad GPS sedms to be software weaknes…
- mfmx
  May 14, 2014
  The GPS on Huawei Honor 3X is fine (but still lacking because of no GLONASS support). The cheaper brands don’t have good antennas but sell on specs…

Liam McLeod
May 12, 2014
I really hope the next Nexus device doesn’t have a mediatek processor, and I’m very certain it wont. Mediatek have only ever updated one chipset, and that was months after kitkat was released. GPS is also consistently poor.
geekwannabe
May 13, 2014
I think it will be the Alcatel one touch Pop S7.
billybloggs
May 13, 2014
Would be nice if JiaYu or Faea, were first and actually brought it to market with a nice high capacity battery that could get you through the day. Jiayu did a greaqt job with the G4 series, so might give us all a surprise with a 4G phone that i has a 4.5 to 5 inch screen.

Martin S
May 13, 2014
I’m waiting for a nice MT6595 phone with 2,0Ghz and above with 4G and DualSim and of course 4K H.265 Video. I hope the manufacturers bring some new devices out in the next 6 months
Guest
May 13, 2014
Umi X3 MTK6595 is availible on alliexpress guys!
mfmx
May 14, 2014
MediaTek will loose a lot of money if they don’t get their stuff together real quick, the LTE offerings from Qualcomm and Marvell seem reasonable.