Security issue found on Mediatek Android Kitkat devices


mediatek mt6797

Certain phones and tablets running Android 4.4 Kitkat on a Mediatek chipset could have a serious security issue.

Mediatek has confirmed that a ‘potential security issue’ has been discovered on certain smartphones and tablets that are running Android 4.4 Kitkat. The company hasn’t confirmed which brands or models might be affected but states that the vulnerability could allow someone to enable root permissions remotely via a malicious application.

Mediatek states that the problem arrises when debugging on a phone is left active when released to the public. The company says that Chinese phone makers have been warned to check this in the future but phones already in users hands could be at risk.

Gizchina News of the week


After testing, phone manufacturers should disable the de-bug feature before shipping smartphones. However, after investigation, we found that a few phone manufacturers didn’t disable the feature, resulting in this potential security issue.

If loaded on a phone with debug activated, a malicious application could change permissions of core Android security settings to enable ADB over WIFI and allow remote root access.

Activating debug on a phone or tablet is also often used by more experienced Android users, modders etc, but those more tech savvy people are more less prone to installing dodgy software. Casual users with little knowledge of modding are more likely to find this a security issue.

At this time we don’t know if Mediatek will be making a fix to remotely turn off debug in all phones with the problem or if simply telling manufacturers to double-check their settings in the future is their ‘fix’.

Disclaimer: We may be compensated by some of the companies whose products we talk about, but our articles and reviews are always our honest opinions. For more details, you can check out our editorial guidelines and learn about how we use affiliate links.

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120 Comments

  1. Nolan
    January 30, 2016

    — MT6589, MT6582, MT6583, MT6592 —
    Pathetic GPS, blame shifted to phone manufacturers and “Antenna” implementations.

    — MT6572 —
    Heating and Battery Consumption
    Decent GPS (still much longer device-only cold lock times than other chips)

    — MT6573 —
    Underclocked, underpowered, crap GPU

    — MT6595 —
    Touted as a mid-range flagship, utterly poor performance (both CPU and GPU)
    Decent GPS (still much longer device-only cold lock times than other chips)

    — X10 —
    Touted as a mid-range flagship, underwhelming performance
    WiFi Issues reported by many users

    — X20 —
    Touted as a top-tier flagship, seemingly underwhelming performance (preliminary)

    — X30 —
    Another disappointment in the making. Time will tell.

    —- Overall problems through the years: —-

    – False promises of exceptional performance (never achieved stated figures)
    – Utterly disgusting GPS performance even in latest generation chips
    – You’ll need to download EPO files and assist software for GPS to work
    – GPS doesn’t work offline (i.e. without SIMs, WiFi Networks and Data connections)
    – The crappiest of GPUs (phone is targeted for a “certain” audience I guess)
    – WiFi problems
    – (Undiscovered) Security Problems

    I hope QualComm’s 82x/65x bury MediaTek’s lineup through mid-range phones in 2016. Can’t count on the Exynos 8890 since that is exclusively flagship material, but the SD 65x and even the 82x should be in a number of mid-high range devices.

    • Aa
      January 30, 2016

      Well, just don’t use MediaTek devices if you think so. I am pleased with them. They are not the best, but they are cheaper. That is the point with China phones.

      • Muhammad Yasir
        January 30, 2016

        exactly !

    • MattD
      January 30, 2016

      …so why are you even here? Jumping the fact that most of what you wrote are your personal opinions disguised as objective facts written in stone, and other things you totally ignored because they didn’t fit with your opinions… Jumping all of that, why are you here? We all know that mediatek’s chip are not on par with qualcomm’s ones benchmarks wise, it all goes for one’s preferences (and, mostly, budget)… What’s the point?!

      • Muhammad Yasir
        January 30, 2016

        i just want to see the look on Nolan’s face when MTK supersede a Qualcomm flagship SoC 😀

        • MattD
          January 30, 2016

          I would just make him watch s7lyer’s game tests on the ulefone power: i saw it the other day and i was impressed how flawlessly it handles all of the heaviest games on the playstore with just a mali t720 as gpu… But hey, “benchmarks say otherwise, so it must sucks” ?

          • Muhammad Yasir
            January 30, 2016

            lol …
            i can’t help but laugh when people prefer benchmarks to real life output !

            if benchmarks really told the actual truth , we would only have Qualcomm phones , Nvidia GPUs and Intel CPUs in the market … each retailing for around $2000+ , pricing out a VAST majority of tech-savvy people , geeks and any lover of technology from having ANY FUN with tech at all !

            Thankfully , that’s not how it works and benchmark worshipers are far too blind to see that !

            • balcobomber25
              January 30, 2016

              Nolan lives in a world where benchmarks are the only thing that matters, real world performance means nothing if his Antutu hit’s 90K.

        • Nolan
          January 30, 2016

          Will never happen Yasir, that’s an infinitely long wait. And MTK wouldn’t have to supersede just a Qualcomm flagship SoC, but also a Samsung SoC (e.g. the Ex 8890).

          Forget the X30, even the X300 will not be anywhere close to the market flagship when it’s released. 😉

          • Muhammad Yasir
            January 30, 2016

            yeah well , none of us is GOD …. or psychic.
            so never say never 🙂

          • balcobomber25
            January 30, 2016

            Samsung makes the best chips but they are limited to mainly two brands: Samsung and Meizu. No one else really uses them.

            Mediatek already surpassed Qualcomm last year, everyone of their chips was better than it’s rival:

            MT6735/53 > SD410
            MT6752 > SD615
            Helios X10 > SD810

            Qualcomm really screwed up with the release of the 64 bit chips, the 615 and 810 were full of issues and the 410 was greatly underpowered.

      • Oscar
        January 30, 2016

        Whether you like it or not, a lot of it is true. I’ve been using MTK based devices for the past 3 years and they do suck in terms of GPS and GPU but it’s something I’m prepared to live with rather than spend stupid amounts of money on a Samsung or Sony.

        IMO if MTK fix their GPS and use a more powerful GPU they would easily beat Qualcomm.

        • kzm
          January 30, 2016

          my phone using MTK6752 the GPS is good

        • balcobomber25
          January 30, 2016

          MTK chips used to be terrible with GPS there is no denying that. But their 64 bit chips are much better.

        • MattD
          January 31, 2016

          I’m not saying mediatek chips are perfect: surely they cut on the gpu side, but mostly “you get what you’re paying for”. The gps thread is a bit of a grey area thought: they surely didn’t work well outside china, but were they meant to work outside china?

      • Nolan
        January 30, 2016

        Well, one of the points, MattD, is, that in 2016, for mid-rangers, it is still unequivocally, unquestionably, unambiguously better to buy SD 801, SD805 and SD808 phones than any Mediatek Flagships, as price differences are negligible.

        Currently, some SD 801 phones are cheaper than X10 phones. Same to follow suit for SD808 (Note: The SD805 is not widely available at all).

        The next point is, SD810 isn’t all that problematic (my daily driver is One Plus Two). I’ve had extended gaming sessions (Asphalt 8, MC) in excess of 1 hour (Multiplayer network gaming in AS8) without throttling issues. Surprisingly, throttling kicked in with another game much less taxing on the GPU, and much earlier too.

        So what I’m getting at is, a cheaper SD810 phone is significantly better than MediaTek’s best, on EVERY parameter. If you’re buying a MediaTEK, then you’re obviously not into GPUs and heavy gaming. Then why not get a QualCOMM or Samsung instead?

        It follows that QualComm’s last gen is usually better than MediaTek’s current gen.

        The next point, for flagships, is that while the 8890 will be housed in the most expensive Galaxy series, the SD820 will eventually find itself in well priced phones (if you’ve been following GizChina, you know which ones). So again, why on earth would anyone pick X10 or X20 if they can find a similar spec’d QualComm 82x phone in the same price bracket?

        • MaxPower
          January 30, 2016

          I have to disagree with what you said.
          Let’s talk about midrangers.
          You said you can go with SD805 SD801
          Which means last year/almost 2 years ago phones.
          So what if someone would like to get this year features like fingerprint scanner? Or better camera sensor? Zuk z1? And that’s it?

          Today if you want a good midranger then Mediatek is the way to go.
          No Qualcomm and no Samsung can compete on this field.

          I won’t be talking about SD820 or X20 that are not even out yet.

          Flagship… Well, last year has been Samsung only, Qualcomm failed miserably and sales proved it.

          Cheap devices… Again, no Samsung nor Qualcomm can compete with Mediatek over this segment, and I’m not talking of benchmarks, I’m talking of sales

          • Lazar Prodanovic
            January 30, 2016

            Max QC is re inventing mid range as we speak & it won’t be cosmetic changes either.

            Didn’t you confront me badly when I spoked against them? As US thing’s are better funboy or as you might say patriot.

            I don’t like any of them but I at least try to stay honest concerning product qualities.

            MTK’s worst nightmare is lifting secret embargo US & Tajvan made on building semiconductor fabs in China. But this will never the less happen sooner or later.

            • Nolan
              January 30, 2016

              MaxPower’s stance is subject to change depending on what you state. He only exists to counter what someone else is saying, and will often change his stance just for the sake of an argument.

              For example, if you say A is bad and B is good, he will bitch and moan and begin to provide some sort of (usually ridiculous) evidence to counter argue. If you stated things the other way around, he’d find some shady counter example for that too. Lastly, if as a bait you post a somewhat neutral opinion, then he’ll side with either of A or B to counter your statement.

              I’ve seen this frequently in his posts, especially when it comes to chip manufacturers. It’s not that he doesn’t have an opinion – he could be a Samsung / MediaTek / QualComm admirer, or not an admirer at all – but the one thing that is very clear is that he cannot stand anyone making any kind of argument / statement. His propensity to counter argue agains absolutely anything is incredible.

              Not to make fun of your time, but if you can, just follow his posts for one or two days and try to figure out any consistency in what he says. For him, A is good when you say it’s bad, and A is bad when you say it’s good. Disagreement is his life blood.

            • Nolan
              January 30, 2016

              WAIT, WAIT, I meant Balcobomber25.
              Very sorry for the messup.

              @disqus_0lJZ8Bi7SK:disqus that wasn’t meant for you, sorry!.

            • balcobomber25
              January 30, 2016

              Hhahah, apparently I am living rent free in your head. I do love that you think about me all the time, it’s quite flattering.

            • Nolan
              January 30, 2016

              Nopes, you flatter yourself, which is typical of grumpy aged people. 😉

            • balcobomber25
              January 30, 2016

              You mention me in threads I am not even a part of, meaning I am on your mind. That is flattery in and of itself.

            • Nolan
              January 30, 2016

              Just to clarify, I meant BalcoBomber25, not MaxPower. None of the above applies to MaxPower.

            • Lazar Prodanovic
              January 30, 2016

              Now now be nice. I am a big boy & I do return the favors.

            • MaxPower
              January 30, 2016

              I’m sure Qualcomm won’t stare without doing anything .
              I know that in Europe and USA they still lead even in the low and mid tiers (here in the US Mediatek is still nonexistent) but in Asia it’s different.

              Now, my point was not about which one is better because I don’t know much about SoC and honestly I don’t care that much, I want to talk about phones here.

              If TODAY, I want to buy a low tier or mid tier without getting raped I can only go with a Mediatek phone.
              Nolan said that I can go with last year phones too (SD801, SD805…)
              That’s true, the price is comparable, but what about the features?
              Most of people can care less of what SoC a phone has, they want a good camera, fingerprint sensor metal body… All missing stuff in last year flagships.

              Zuk Z1, OnePlusX ? Sure, but that’s all, not much choice.
              That was my whole point

            • balcobomber25
              January 30, 2016

              QC is reinventing mid range and MTK is reinventing cheap flagships. Both will have some excellent chips in 2016.

        • balcobomber25
          January 30, 2016

          A cheaper SD810 is significantly better if your stuck outside on a cold winter day and don’t have gloves on. Your Qualcomm fanboy love is showing deeply on this thread.

          • Lazar Prodanovic
            February 1, 2016

            I heard that S810 doesn’t case any problems overheating to its owners that live in Siberia & Alaska. ?

      • Lazar Prodanovic
        January 30, 2016

        MTK SoC’s are not on pair with suport, software optimizations nor will they ever be. The biggest problem with MTK that they are a cheap basterd’s always trying to save a little more usually ruining the whole thing so that it can cost a 1$ less. Will they ever get over it? I doubt it. Do any one of us really care about price difference of final product of 1$ (or couple of $ for that matter). Probably not.

        • Nolan
          January 30, 2016

          Well said. Most people don’t realize that the value proposition of MTK’s so called “flagships” quickly diminish once phone manufacturers start to create value-phones based on top QualComm chips (or Samsung).

          Case in point, One Plus One, One Plus Two, InFocus M810, MotoX, ViVo XShot – These are all SD801 phones which are available for *very* reasonable prices right now. Crazy how these have MTK’s best beat, except when it comes to fake Megapixel counts (extrapolated on MTK devices) and fingerprint sensors, lol!

          • Lazar Prodanovic
            January 30, 2016

            That doesn’t have anything to do with SoC manufacturing just bad OEM’s.

            S801 is still on pair with X10 concerning CPU & better at GPU, cellular modem and cetera.

            Now don’t get me wrong I actually hate QC, I liked Texas Instruments & also liked Broadcom as they ware much better to the open source than QC will ever be. Actually QC ruined their biznis for what they will probably start paying a fee in EU this year. But now their is only QC as open stack. I would like to MTK get better but somehow they menage to even turn their own wins to looses. I do look whit a hope that new SoC manufacturers that will emerge in China in up coming years will actually realize the importance of open source & embrace it.

          • Lazar Prodanovic
            January 30, 2016

            Real value is that my two years old msm8226 phone (S3 Neo) is in most cases still better than new MT6753 ones thanks to software optimizations & kernel work that I am participating in.
            Even Samsung stopped with updates some time ago (with K. K.) but still delivers security patches we have variety of Roms to choose from (Samsung port’s, CM’s & CM based ones). It’s also easy as it gets to find spare & extra parts for it as it’s body S3 based. I got it a year ago on discount (didn’t pay all that much for it) & will probably use it at least one more year. Now what Kung fu panda MTK based can deliver that?

          • Roger
            January 30, 2016

            All of those phones are out of my price range. I’m more than happy with the performance of my $130 MTK powered Meizu M2.

            • Lazar Prodanovic
              February 1, 2016

              Honey InFocus M810T is almost in that price range but no software suport & lacks sources so you will be stuck on K. K. It had some software/firmware problems regarding cellular radio handling LTE (without using DSP).

            • Roger
              February 1, 2016

              It has no support for either 850 or 900MHz WCDMA which means it can’t be used in Australia.

        • balcobomber25
          January 30, 2016

          Software optimization sucks on most phones regardless of the chipset it runs. I know plenty of Qualcomm phones that are so badly optimized.

          • Lazar Prodanovic
            January 30, 2016

            Source & normal people wiling to work on them usually helps all do normal people that have knowledge are usually rarity this day’s.

        • MattD
          January 31, 2016

          Support and sw optimization is all up to the company, mediatek has nothing to do about it. However, it’s not that 1 extra dollar, it’s much more complicated than this

          • Lazar Prodanovic
            January 31, 2016

            No its not!
            Software optimizing is up to you or OEM if you have a source & if you haven’t then is only up to manufacture (in this case MTK).

            One or couple of bucks especially in mid range class won’t mean anything to final buyer but believe me it can make a whole lot of difference on product (SoC die size).

    • reb
      January 30, 2016

      Hahahaha, oh, god, troll incoming xDDDDD
      P.D. you obviously didn’t buy any mtk phone, so please, save the explanations to us ;D

    • Fábio
      January 30, 2016

      Snapdragon 410 – bad performance
      Snapdragon 615 – throttling
      Snapdragon 810 – overheating, battery drain

      I don’t understand were is the point… Mediatek have very good prices!
      In December I bought one Redmi Note 3 for only $200…. Really men, can you buy one amazing phone with snapdragon for this price in December of 2015?

      By the way, no issues with wifi, GPS or anything on my x10.

      • Karly Johnston
        January 30, 2016

        That was last year, the 650 in the Note 3 is setting a new bar in budget performance. The 820 kills everything and the 652 will push the mid-range even further. The X20 is MIA and its lower line-up is garbage.

        • balcobomber25
          January 31, 2016

          “The 820 kills everything” , “The X20 is MIA and garbage”. I wasn’t aware you personally had access to either of those chips. Please post your detailed review of your use with both chips.

        • VMortens
          February 1, 2016

          Some heavy trolling …

    • January 30, 2016

      To be fair, everything that came before the MT6572 was pretty underwhelming, which kinda tarnished the MediaTek name. Then the MT6572 came out, and something funny happened: MediaTek almost became a folk hero. Suddenly we had a SoC that was capable of excellent performance, but the main thing was that it allowed a whole new generation of people to be able to afford very good unlocked phones for under $200. Qualcomm also had budget SoCs, but they could not compete with MediaTek when it came to price-to-performance. The MT6572 was a “good enough” substitute for the SD800 at half the cost, so anything below the SD800 was better left to be forgotten.

      With the MT6572 MediaTek finally hit a home run. They regressed a bit with the MT6573, but everything else that came out after that has been mostly positively received (maybe not home runs, but certainly triples and doubles ;)). I think MediaTek’s encroachment on Qualcomm’s high-margin turf with the MT6795 (X10), combined with the SD810 overheating debacle, started to reflect in Qualcomm’s finances. When a long-time client drops your product for a competitor’s, that’s never a good thing. However, Qualcomm must realize that they can’t continue to bunt, so they locked down and got busy. What came out of that, beginning with the mid-range SD650, is very exciting to watch. I think competition can only benefit consumers like us, so not sure why we should be haters of any SoC manufacturer. Just saying.

      • balcobomber25
        January 31, 2016

        Mediatek had some decent chips fore the 6752, like the 6595 but the 6752 was the one that really made people take notice of them. That and Qualcomm’s continued struggles throughout 2015 led to Mediatek having a much bigger market.

        I agree with you, even if you hate Mediatek (like many here do), competition makes it better for the consumer regardless of your brand preference.

        • January 31, 2016

          Yeah, my old Vibe X2 had the MT6595M, and even though it was the lower spec’ed one I was more than satisfied with its performance. I’m now using an SD801 phone, but I don’t really notice that it’s screaming fast compared to the X2 (maybe it’s because I don’t play hardcore 3D games). One thing I do notice though: I keep having to kill apps on my SD801 phone with 2GB RAM or else it would get really sluggish and act up. I always thought 2GB RAM was enough, but this phone is starting to make me reassess my requirements lol.

          • Lazar Prodanovic
            January 31, 2016

            It’s a bad memory management. Use developer options & set background processes to 3 or 4 & problem solved.

            • January 31, 2016

              Thanks, Lazar! I haven’t tried that before, but I guess it won’t hurt to try :-).

          • balcobomber25
            January 31, 2016

            Could be the software it is running.

  2. David Košič
    January 30, 2016

    Mediatek is great when you look at the price/performance ratio at least in the cpu side. However in the end you still get what you payed for.

    • balcobomber25
      January 30, 2016

      Mediatek is great, Qualcomm is great. Mediatek is bad, Qualcomm is bad. You get what you pay for regardless of the company.

      • Karly Johnston
        January 30, 2016

        Nah, you get more updates even on lower end Snapdragons than any MTK.

        • balcobomber25
          January 31, 2016

          It depends on the brand not the SoC, I have used Qualcomm and MTK devices that never received a single update. I have used both that received several updates.

          • Karly Johnston
            January 31, 2016

            I wasn’t aware you personally had access to either of those chips. Please post your detailed review of your use with both chips. Include screen shots, video and your entire smartphone usage over the last 2 years and post a 10,000 word write up. Oh wait, reviewers have already done that for you.

            • MattD
              January 31, 2016

              ^tl;dr:
              “something completely retarded”

            • balcobomber25
              January 31, 2016

              No one has access to those chips because they are not out yet, which is why unlike you I haven’t said a thing about either of them.

  3. Guest
    January 30, 2016

    — MT6589, MT6582, MT6583, MT6592 —
    Pathetic GPS, blame shifted to phone manufacturers and “Antenna” implementations.

    — MT6572 —
    Heating and Battery Consumption
    Decent GPS (still much longer device-only cold lock times than other chips)

    — MT6573 —
    Underclocked, underpowered, crap GPU

    — MT6595 —
    Touted as a mid-range flagship, utterly poor performance (both CPU and GPU)
    Decent GPS (still much longer device-only cold lock times than other chips)

    — X10 —
    Touted as a mid-range flagship, underwhelming performance
    WiFi Issues reported by many users

    — X20 —
    Touted as a top-tier flagship, seemingly underwhelming performance (preliminary)

    — X30 —
    Another disappointment in the making. Time will tell.

    —- Overall problems through the years: —-

    – False promises of exceptional performance (never achieved stated figures)
    – Utterly disgusting GPS performance even in latest generation chips
    – You’ll need to download EPO files and assist software for GPS to work
    – GPS doesn’t work offline (i.e. without SIMs, WiFi Networks and Data connections)
    – The crappiest of GPUs (phone is targeted for a “certain” audience I guess)
    – WiFi problems
    – (Undiscovered) Security Problems

    I hope QualComm’s 82x/65x bury MediaTek’s lineup through mid-range phones in 2016. Can’t count on the Exynos 8890 since that is exclusively flagship material, but the SD 65x and even the 82x should be in a number of mid-high range devices.

    • Aa
      January 30, 2016

      Well, just don’t use MediaTek devices if you think so. I am pleased with them. They are not the best, but they are cheaper. That is the point with China phones.

    • MattD
      January 30, 2016

      …so why are you even here? Jumping the fact that most of what you wrote are your personal opinions disguised as objective facts written in stone, and other things you totally ignored because they didn’t fit with your opinions… Jumping all of that, why are you here? We all know that mediatek’s chip are not on par with qualcomm’s ones benchmarks wise, it all goes for one’s preferences (and, mostly, budget)… What’s the point?!

    • Guest
      January 30, 2016

      exactly !

    • Guest
      January 30, 2016

      i just want to see the look on Nolan’s face when MTK supersede a Qualcomm flagship SoC 😀

    • Guest
      January 30, 2016

      Hahahaha, oh, god, troll incoming xDDDDD
      P.D. you obviously didn’t buy any mtk phone, so please, save the explanations to us ;D

    • Fábio
      January 30, 2016

      Snapdragon 410 – bad performance
      Snapdragon 615 – throttling
      Snapdragon 810 – overheating, battery drain

      I don’t understand were is the point… Mediatek have very good prices!
      In December I bought one Redmi Note 3 for only $200…. Really men, can you buy one amazing phone with snapdragon for this price in December of 2015?

      By the way, no issues with wifi, GPS or anything on my x10.

    • MattD
      January 30, 2016

      I would just make him watch s7lyer’s game tests on the ulefone power: i saw it the other day and i was impressed how flawlessly it handles all of the heaviest games on the playstore with just a mali t720 as gpu… But hey, “benchmarks say otherwise, so it must sucks” 😁

    • Guest
      January 30, 2016

      lol …
      i can’t help but laugh when people prefer benchmarks to real life output !

      if benchmarks really told the actual truth , we would only have Qualcomm phones , Nvidia GPUs and Intel CPUs in the market … each retailing for around $2000+ , pricing out a VAST majority of tech-savvy people , geeks and any lover of technology from having ANY FUN with tech at all !

      Thankfully , that’s not how it works and benchmark worshipers are far too blind to see that !

    • Guest
      January 30, 2016

      Whether you like it or not, a lot of it is true. I’ve been using MTK based devices for the past 3 years and they do suck in terms of GPS and GPU but it’s something I’m prepared to live with rather than spend stupid amounts of money on a Samsung or Sony.

      IMO if MTK fix their GPS and use a more powerful GPU they would easily beat Qualcomm.

    • Guest
      January 30, 2016

      Will never happen Yasir, that’s an infinitely long wait. And MTK wouldn’t have to supersede just a Qualcomm flagship SoC, but also a Samsung SoC (e.g. the Ex 8890).

      Forget the X30, even the X300 will not be anywhere close to the market flagship when it’s released. 😉

    • Guest
      January 30, 2016

      Well, one of the points, MattD, is, that in 2016, for mid-rangers, it is still unequivocally, unquestionably, unambiguously better to buy SD 801, SD805 and SD808 phones than any Mediatek Flagships, as price differences are negligible.

      Currently, some SD 801 phones are cheaper than X10 phones. Same to follow suit for SD808 (Note: The SD805 is not widely available at all).

      The next point is, SD810 isn’t all that problematic (my daily driver is One Plus Two). I’ve had extended gaming sessions (Asphalt 8, MC) in excess of 1 hour (Multiplayer network gaming in AS8) without throttling issues. Surprisingly, throttling kicked in with another game much less taxing on the GPU, and much earlier too.

      So what I’m getting at is, a cheaper SD810 phone is significantly better than MediaTek’s best, on EVERY parameter. If you’re buying a MediaTEK, then you’re obviously not into GPUs and heavy gaming. Then why not get a QualCOMM or Samsung instead?

      It follows that QualComm’s last gen is usually better than MediaTek’s current gen.

      The next point, for flagships, is that while the 8890 will be housed in the most expensive Galaxy series, the SD820 will eventually find itself in well priced phones (if you’ve been following GizChina, you know which ones). So again, why on earth would anyone pick X10 or X20 if they can find a similar spec’d QualComm 82x phone in the same price bracket?

    • kzm
      January 30, 2016

      my phone using MTK6752 the GPS is good

    • MaxPower
      January 30, 2016

      I have to disagree with what you said.
      Let’s talk about midrangers.
      You said you can go with SD805 SD801
      Which means last year/almost 2 years ago phones.
      So what if someone would like to get this year features like fingerprint scanner? Or better camera sensor? Zuk z1? And that’s it?

      Today if you want a good midranger then Mediatek is the way to go.
      No Qualcomm and no Samsung can compete on this field.

      I won’t be talking about SD820 or X20 that are not even out yet.

      Flagship… Well, last year has been Samsung only, Qualcomm failed miserably and sales proved it.

      Cheap devices… Again, no Samsung nor Qualcomm can compete with Mediatek over this segment, and I’m not talking of benchmarks, I’m talking of sales

    • Guest
      January 30, 2016

      yeah well , none of us is GOD …. or psychic.
      so never say never 🙂

    • Lazar Prodanovic
      January 30, 2016

      Max QC is re inventing mid range as we speak & it won’t be cosmetic changes either.

      Didn’t you confront me badly when I spoked against them? As US thing’s are better funboy or as you might say patriot.

      I don’t like any of them but I at least try to stay honest concerning product qualities.

      MTK’s worst nightmare is lifting secret embargo US & Tajvan made on building semiconductor fabs in China. But this will never the less happen sooner or later.

    • Lazar Prodanovic
      January 30, 2016

      MTK SoC’s are not on pair with suport, software optimizations nor will they ever be. The biggest problem with MTK that they are a cheap basterd’s always trying to save a little more usually ruining the whole thing so that it can cost a 1$ less. Will they ever get over it? I doubt it. Do any one of us really care about price difference of final product of 1$ (or couple of $ for that matter). Probably not.

    • Guest
      January 30, 2016

      Well said. Most people don’t realize that the value proposition of MTK’s so called “flagships” quickly diminish once phone manufacturers start to create value-phones based on top QualComm chips (or Samsung).

      Case in point, One Plus One, One Plus Two, InFocus M810, MotoX, ViVo XShot – These are all SD801 phones which are available for *very* reasonable prices right now. Crazy how these have MTK’s best beat, except when it comes to fake Megapixel counts (extrapolated on MTK devices) and fingerprint sensors, lol!

    • Guest
      January 30, 2016

      MaxPower’s stance is subject to change depending on what you state. He only exists to counter what someone else is saying, and will often change his stance just for the sake of an argument.

      For example, if you say A is bad and B is good, he will bitch and moan and begin to provide some sort of (usually ridiculous) evidence to counter argue. If you stated things the other way around, he’d find some shady counter example for that too. Lastly, if as a bait you post a somewhat neutral opinion, then he’ll side with either of A or B to counter your statement.

      I’ve seen this frequently in his posts, especially when it comes to chip manufacturers. It’s not that he doesn’t have an opinion – he could be a Samsung / MediaTek / QualComm admirer, or not an admirer at all – but the one thing that is very clear is that he cannot stand anyone making any kind of argument / statement. His propensity to counter argue agains absolutely anything is incredible.

      Not to make fun of your time, but if you can, just follow his posts for one or two days and try to figure out any consistency in what he says. For him, A is good when you say it’s bad, and A is bad when you say it’s good. Disagreement is his life blood.

    • Guest
      January 30, 2016

      WAIT, WAIT, I meant Balcobomber25.
      Very sorry for the messup.

      @disqus_0lJZ8Bi7SK:disqus that wasn’t meant for you, sorry!.

    • Guest
      January 30, 2016

      Just to clarify, I meant BalcoBomber25, not MaxPower. None of the above applies to MaxPower.

    • Lazar Prodanovic
      January 30, 2016

      That doesn’t have anything to do with SoC manufacturing just bad OEM’s.

      S801 is still on pair with X10 concerning CPU & better at GPU, cellular modem and cetera.

      Now don’t get me wrong I actually hate QC, I liked Texas Instruments & also liked Broadcom as they ware much better to the open source than QC will ever be. Actually QC ruined their biznis for what they will probably start paying a fee in EU this year. But now their is only QC as open stack. I would like to MTK get better but somehow they menage to even turn their own wins to looses. I do look whit a hope that new SoC manufacturers that will emerge in China in up coming years will actually realize the importance of open source & embrace it.

    • Lazar Prodanovic
      January 30, 2016

      Now now be nice. I am a big boy & I do return the favors.

    • Lazar Prodanovic
      January 30, 2016

      Real value is that my two years old msm8226 phone (S3 Neo) is in most cases still better than new MT6735 ones thanks to software optimizations & kernel work that I am participating in.
      Even Samsung stopped with updates some time ago (with K. K.) but still delivers security patches we have variety of Roms to choose from (Samsung port’s, CM’s & CM based ones). It’s also easy as it gets to find spare & extra parts for it as it’s bloody S3 based. I got it a year ago on discount (didn’t pay all that much for it) & will probably use it at least one more year. Now what Kung fu panda MTK based can deliver that?

      Before:
      https://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/5113895

      Whit current kernel build:
      http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/5114775

    • MaxPower
      January 30, 2016

      I’m sure Qualcomm won’t stare without doing anything .
      I know that in Europe and USA they still lead even in the low and mid tiers (here in the US Mediatek is still nonexistent) but in Asia it’s different.

      Now, my point was not about which one is better because I don’t know much about SoC and honestly I don’t care that much, I want to talk about phones here.

      If TODAY, I want to buy a low tier or mid tier without getting raped I can only go with a Mediatek phone.
      Nolan said that I can go with last year phones too (SD801, SD805…)
      That’s true, the price is comparable, but what about the features?
      Most of people can care less of what SoC a phone has, they want a good camera, fingerprint sensor metal body… All missing stuff in last year flagships.

      Zuk Z1, OnePlusX ? Sure, but that’s all, not many choices.
      That was my whole point

    • balcobomber25
      January 30, 2016

      Software optimization sucks on most phones regardless of the chipset it runs. I know plenty of Qualcomm phones that are so badly optimized.

    • balcobomber25
      January 30, 2016

      A cheaper SD810 is significantly better if your stuck outside on a cold winter day and don’t have gloves on. Your Qualcomm fanboy love is showing deeply on this thread.

    • balcobomber25
      January 30, 2016

      Hhahah, apparently I am living rent free in your head. I do love that you think about me all the time, it’s quite flattering.

      I am not a fanboy of any SoC company, they all have good chips and they all have terrible chips. You are so deeply in love with Qualcomm though. You’re just mad that I always call you for your foolish benchmark comments.

    • balcobomber25
      January 30, 2016

      MTK chips used to be terrible with GPS there is no denying that. But their 64 bit chips are much better.

    • balcobomber25
      January 30, 2016

      Samsung makes the best chips but they are limited to mainly two brands: Samsung and Meizu. No one else really uses them.

      Mediatek already surpassed Qualcomm last year, everyone of their chips was better than it’s rival:

      MT6735/53 > SD410
      MT6752 > SD615
      Helios X10 > SD810

      Qualcomm really screwed up with the release of the 64 bit chips, the 615 and 810 were full of issues and the 410 was greatly underpowered.

    • balcobomber25
      January 30, 2016

      Nolan lives in a world where benchmarks are the only thing that matters, real world performance means nothing if his Antutu hit’s 90K.

    • Guest
      January 30, 2016

      Nopes, you flatter yourself, which is typical of grumpy aged people. 😉

    • balcobomber25
      January 30, 2016

      QC is reinventing mid range and MTK is reinventing cheap flagships. Both will have some excellent chips in 2016.

    • Lazar Prodanovic
      January 30, 2016

      Source & normal people wiling to work on them usually helps all do normal people that have knowledge are usually rarity this day’s.

    • balcobomber25
      January 30, 2016

      You mention me in threads I am not even a part of, meaning I am on your mind. That is flattery in and of itself.

    • Karly Johnston
      January 31, 2016

      That was last year, the 650 in the Note 3 is setting a new bar in budget performance. The 820 kills everything and the 652 will push the mid-range even further. The X20 is MIA and its lower line-up is garbage.

    • 10basetom
      January 31, 2016

      To be fair, everything that came before the MT6572 was pretty underwhelming, which kinda tarnished the MediaTek name. Then the MT6572 came out, and something funny happened: MediaTek almost became a folk hero. Suddenly we had a SoC that was capable of excellent performance for the price, but the main thing was that it allowed a whole new generation of people to be able to afford very good unlocked phones for under $200. Qualcomm also had budget SoCs, but they could not compete with MediaTek when it came to price-to-performance. The MT6572 was a “good enough” substitute for the SD800 at half the cost, so anything below the SD800 was better left to be forgotten.

      With the MT6572 MediaTek finally hit a home run. They regressed a bit with the MT6573, but everything else that came out after that has been mostly positively received (maybe not home runs, but certainly triples and doubles ;)). I think MediaTek’s encroachment on Qualcomm’s high-margin turf with the MT6795 (X10), combined with the SD810 overheating debacle, started to reflect in Qualcomm’s finances. When a long-time client drops your product for a competitor’s, that’s never a good thing. However, Qualcomm must realize that they can’t continue to bunt, so they locked down and got busy. What came out of that, beginning with the mid-range SD650, is very exciting to watch. I think competition can only benefit consumers like us, so not sure why we should be hating on any SoC manufacturer. Just saying.

    • balcobomber25
      January 31, 2016

      Mediatek had some decent chips fore the 6752, like the 6595 but the 6752 was the one that really made people take notice of them. That and Qualcomm’s continued struggles throughout 2015 led to Mediatek having a much bigger market.

      I agree with you, even if you hate Mediatek (like many here do), competition makes it better for the consumer regardless of your brand preference.

    • balcobomber25
      January 31, 2016

      “The 820 kills everything” , “The X20 is MIA and garbage”. I wasn’t aware you personally had access to either of those chips. Please post your detailed review of your use with both chips.

    • 10basetom
      January 31, 2016

      Yeah, my old Vibe X2 had the MT6595M, and even though it was the lower spec’ed one I was more than satisfied with its performance. I’m now using an SD801 phone, but I don’t really notice that it’s screaming fast compared to the X2 (maybe it’s because I don’t play hardcore 3D games). One thing I do notice though: I keep having to kill apps on my SD801 phone with 2GB RAM or else it would get really sluggish and act up. I always thought 2GB RAM was enough, but this phone is starting to make me reassess my requirements lol.

    • Lazar Prodanovic
      January 31, 2016

      It’s a bad memory management. Use developer options & set background processes to 3 or 4 & problem solved.

    • MattD
      January 31, 2016

      Support and sw optimization is all up to the company, mediatek has nothing to do about it. However, it’s not that 1 extra dollar, it’s much more complicated than this

    • MattD
      January 31, 2016

      I’m not saying mediatek chips are perfect: surely they cut on the gpu side, but mostly “you get what you’re paying for”. The gps thread is a bit of a grey area thought: they surely didn’t work well outside china, but were they meant to work outside china?

    • Lazar Prodanovic
      January 31, 2016

      No its not!
      Software optimizing is up to you or OEM if you have a source & if you haven’t then is only up to manufacture (in this case MTK).

      One or couple of bucks especially in mid range class won’t mean anything to final buyer but believe me it can make a whole lot of difference on product (SoC die size).

    • balcobomber25
      January 31, 2016

      Could be the software it is running.

    • 10basetom
      February 1, 2016

      Thanks, Lazar! I haven’t tried that before, but I guess it won’t hurt to try :-).

    • Lazar Prodanovic
      February 1, 2016

      Honey InFocus M810T is almost in that price range but no software suport & lacks sources so you will be stuck on K. K. It had some software/firmware problems regarding cellular radio handling LTE (without using DSP).

    • Lazar Prodanovic
      February 1, 2016

      I heard that S810 doesn’t case any problems overheating to its owners that live in Siberia & Alaska. 😛

    • VMortens
      February 1, 2016

      Some heavy trolling …

  4. Ismit
    January 30, 2016

    mediatek source code is very good ??

  5. David Košič
    January 30, 2016

    Mediatek is great when you look at the price/performance ratio at least in the cpu side. However in the end you still get what you payed for.

    • balcobomber25
      January 30, 2016

      Mediatek is great, Qualcomm is great. Mediatek is bad, Qualcomm is bad. You get what you pay for regardless of the company.

    • Karly Johnston
      January 31, 2016

      Nah, you get more updates even on lower end Snapdragons than any MTK.

    • balcobomber25
      January 31, 2016

      It depends on the brand not the SoC, I have used Qualcomm and MTK devices that never received a single update. I have used both that received several updates.

    • Karly Johnston
      January 31, 2016

      I wasn’t aware you personally had access to either of those chips. Please post your detailed review of your use with both chips. Include screen shots, video and your entire smartphone usage over the last 2 years and post a 10,000 word write up. Oh wait, reviewers have already done that for you.

    • MattD
      January 31, 2016

      ^tl;dr:
      “something completely retarded”

    • balcobomber25
      January 31, 2016

      No one has access to those chips because they are not out yet, which is why unlike you I haven’t said a thing about either of them.

  6. Lazar Prodanovic
    January 30, 2016

    Oh come on please! Very serious security flow. Activate a ADB over WiFi and get a root access. If anyone ever tried to harvest it you will be able to see him as he would have to be in the range of 10-15 meters from you typing on remote terminal, just slap him & switch WiFi off.

    • XICO2KX
      February 1, 2016

      Ah ah ah! That’s definitely the best solution for this problem!!! ;)))

  7. Guest
    January 30, 2016

    mediatek source code is very good ??

  8. Lazar Prodanovic
    January 30, 2016

    Oh come on please! Very serious security flow. Activate a ADB over WiFi and get a root access. If anyone ever tried to harvest it you will be able to see him as he would have to be in the range of 10-15 meters from you typing on remote terminal, just slap him & switch WiFi off.

    If they implemented LSM this wouldn’t happen.

    • xico2kx
      February 1, 2016

      Ah ah ah! That’s definitely the best solution for this problem!!! ;)))