10nm Hello X30 full details revealed


Mediatek’s Helio range of processors finally get’s a processor that can take on top draw chips from Kirin, Samsung and Qualcomm.

Love them or hate them, Mediatek have really put on a solid show this year with the released of Helio X20 phones and the slightly tuned up Helio X25, but with the official announcement for the new X30 the semiconductor maker is aiming to take it up a notch.

The Helio X30 isn’t set to be in phones until early next year, but we already have a good idea that the SOC is really going to be something to look forward too.

Gizchina News of the week


Updates over the current X20/X25 include the move from 20nm manufacturing to 10nm, in addition the chip now uses Cortex A35 cores to further improve efficiency and battery life.

Full on speed is still the aim of the game with the X30 though, so the top 2 cores A72 running at a reported 2.8Ghz.

Other features include support of 16 mega-pixel cameras and video at 60fps, support for 8GB RAM and the inclusion of a quad-core PowerVR 7XT GPU.

As already mentioned we don’t expect Mediatek to get the Helio X30 into phones until early next year, and it remains to be seen which manufacturer will get the chipset first. What do you think of the new SOC and which brand will get it first?

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.

Previous Doogee T5 finally coming this month
Next OnePlus shows off its Dash Charge, takes a dig at Samsung while at it

30 Comments

  1. realjjj
    August 9, 2016

    LMAO are you guys doing this every week now?

    Lets see how this went.
    Digitimes reported that TSMC will start volume production for MTK’s 10nm chips in Q1 http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20160809PD202.html
    The China press reported on that article and listed the rumored specs, that we know are at least in part true. http://www.anzhuo.cn/news/p_13537
    At this point some moron on some Western site decided to claim that Mediatek has launched the X30 and now a bunch of sites are reporting the specs or , even worse , the launch.

    We know that it’s 10 cores on 10nm and CAT 10-12. We also know that the GPU is Imagination. All that from a recent interview. We also know from their latest results call that it’s not using InFO and will ship in the first half of 2017.And a few days ago this leak confirmed the 2.8GHz clocks and a bit more on production timing. All else are rumors and speculations and some are bound to be accurate, not that many options available to chose from. http://www.mtksj.com/uploads/allimg/160804/1-160P412391GA.jpg

    • Muhammad Yasir
      August 9, 2016

      OH … you’re already here 😀

  2. Rob
    August 9, 2016

    The title is very misleading as you haven’t actually revealed what the specs are. Most of what’s been said has been banded around for a while now, with rumours pointing towards A73 Artemis cores as I would be quite surprised if they stuck to A72’s in such a high end chip considering the node it’s going to built on. I’m sure we will learn the full ‘official’ specs in the next month or so, so not too long to wait. Until then articles like this are a waste of time and quite frankly a joke, not something that suits this site at all.

    • Karly Johnston
      August 9, 2016

      The A73 made on the same die is slower than the A72. It only uses a two wide decoder whereas the 72 is three wide.

      • Guaire
        August 9, 2016

        http://images.anandtech.com/doci/10347/10.PNG?_ga=1.242678082.1770008466.1462401026

        “Examples were scarce but on workloads such as BBench (Website loading
        benchmark) the A73 is claimed to be up to 10% better performance than
        the A72 – on the same process and frequency.”

        http://images.anandtech.com/doci/10347/11.PNG?_ga=1.7722482.1770008466.1462401026

        “More importantly it’s power consumption which sees the largest
        improvements. We see up to 25% power reduction in integer workloads and
        up to ~30% in floating point and L2 cache memory operations. ARM
        publishes that the A73 uses at least 20% less power than the A72 at the
        same process and frequency.”

        http://www.anandtech.com/show/10347/arm-cortex-a73-artemis-unveiled/3

        • August 10, 2016

          Man those cheating graphs, making 10% difference look like 30% to the naked eye.
          What this report is lacking is power consumption clock per clock.
          This presentation is plenty gimmicky.

          • Lazar Prodanovic
            August 10, 2016

            Well you can either chose to believe arm or not to. We won’t have a real hardware independently tested for at least half year more & good folks from Anandteach don’t do MTK at all.
            So all we really have are performance/efficiency projections for now.

      • Rob
        August 10, 2016

        The whole idea of the A73 is that it is more efficient, we have reached a stage where chips are more than powerful enough for smartphone use. BTW it is still faster than the A72 regardless of what you might think.

        • Karly Johnston
          August 10, 2016

          You think adding more frequency makes much of a difference? It will not catch up to the Mongoose cores much less Kyro when both of them will jump ahead to the new generation. MTK has stopped trying to compete in the upper range and is content to sit in the middle.

  3. August 9, 2016

    I think Meizu wiil get the SOC first

  4. MattD
    August 9, 2016

    I’ve been reading those exact things for months now, yet nothing official… I’m growing tired of all of this, especially knowing the soc won’t come out for months so it’s really nothing important right now

  5. August 9, 2016

    The new cores and PowerVR graphics will put MTK on the map again.
    Was really hoping they would use a lower-grade PVR chip for the P20, but that`s not to be.
    As efficient as Mali is, it`s not very powerful for the space it takes on the die.

    • Lazar Prodanovic
      August 9, 2016

      Think again. Arm even managed to beat Imagination on they own playground (efficient tile based rendering) with new G71 GPU gen, it’s still cheaper, smaller & ready for 10nm TSMC FinFET without future rooting costs (POP license).

      • August 9, 2016

        That`s the new G71, the older 880 is not better at anything.

        • Lazar Prodanovic
          August 9, 2016

          Yup & it’s all I mentioned and as already typed out on TSMC 10 nm FinFET it’s also faster to get with it on market.

          • August 10, 2016

            No SoC out with it though to actually benchmark, so will have to wait a bit longer to prove your claim.

            • Lazar Prodanovic
              August 10, 2016

              Performance claims are ARMs, it costs a real much to root anything on FinFET & takes a lot of time (about 6 months for a complex SoC) so availability of already rooted components especially largest ones as GPU actually cuts both significantly. Arm’s public statement is that GPU is already lithographicly put to TSMC FinFETs (16,10nm) & ready to license as that (POP). It’s also known how Imagination actually charges more both for licensing and royalties. So not much to be seen if ARM didn’t lie.

  6. balcobomber25
    August 9, 2016

    Cue RealJJJ calling out in Andi in 3…2… Oh wait it already happened.

    • Muhammad Yasir
      August 9, 2016

      HAHA … came to look for a realjj trigger in this thread…

      WAS NOT DISAPPOINTED 😀 !

      p.s : i laughed way harder at this …

    • Muhammad Yasir
      August 10, 2016

      wouldn’t it be epic if Andi actually fought back !!! … im yet to see him angry

      altho i personally think he’s mighty pissed at me for making fun of Brexit (i din’t mean to tho)

      • balcobomber25
        August 10, 2016

        In the few years I have been here, I can’t ever recall Andi getting really mad.

        • Muhammad Yasir
          August 10, 2016

          ikr … gonna be 2 years for me being on the chinese mobile scene this october and im yet to see andi lose his Marbles 😀

      • Muhammad Yasir Snr
        August 11, 2016

        i am*
        although*
        *though

  7. Lazar Prodanovic
    August 9, 2016

    Want to see a Quad core (only) A73 at 1.8 GHz with quad cluster G71 Gpu at 550 Mhz on same proces & for 35% less money. Probably no one will deliver it.

  8. Alto
    August 9, 2016

    I hope it will be twice as powerful as the Exynos 8890 and the upcoming Snapdragon 830, scoring in AnTuTu v6 well above the 200,000 mark, and handling PC grade games with ease – all this while costing a fraction (say 20%) of the Snapdragon 820.

    C’mon MediaTek!

    • Muhammad Yasir
      August 9, 2016

      u sure ?
      i don’t see Qualcomm losing out to MTK anytime soon …

      This coming from a budget phone advocate who adores MTK for their cheaper cpus / phones cos of cheap cpus

  9. Muhammad Yasir
    August 9, 2016

    VLSI and Computer Hardware experts coming in 3..2.. oh wait they’re already here !

  10. Cuda Cores
    August 9, 2016

    Meizu pro 7 ?

  11. Tommi
    August 10, 2016

    Helio x30:

    4x A73 (2.8GHz) + 4x A35 (2GHz) + 2x A35 (2GHz)

    Octa for GPU, please! Quad will be weak as Mali T880 MP4 😛

  12. Marten
    August 10, 2016

    Think that LeEco will make the first one!