Old rivalry dies hard: Snapdragon v MediaTek
Qualcomm has been a market ruler for smartphone chipsets for a long while and it has been almost an impossible task to dethrone it. But I think Mediatek is edging towards breaking the monopoly in the market. If we are talking about the Snapdragon 888, people have been hyping it up a lot just like it does most SD chipsets. While factual points are always valid, there are so many brand loyalists also, who almost always overlook the faults and the flaws in their favorite brands just to downgrade rival products. I think it’s important to be logical and neutral so that the most accurate information is given out.
If we are to compare the Snapdragon 888 with the latest Mediatek Dimensity 9000 chipset we might find that the latter triumphs over the former in a lot of areas. I am only comparing these two because they are currently the top chipset brands in the market and comparisons between them are inevitable. In terms of CPU performance, MediaTek’s Dimesnity 9000 offers a 35% performance increase over an Android flagship, which I think will include any phone powered by the Snapdragon 888 as well as other chipsets too. The smaller node design of the Dimensity 9000 also improves the efficiency by about 37%. This expectedly puts the Dimensity 9000 in a favorable spot not only compared to the Snapdragon 888 but also the alleged Snapdragon 898. Which I think is better known as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and comes with similar CPU IP from ARM, albeit with lower frequencies.
In terms of GPU specs as well the Snapdragon 888 is left behind, with its Dimensity counterpart being 35% higher in performance. The Dimension 9000 is also touted to bring 60% higher power efficiency with the new Mali GPU it is using. Overall, the Dimensity 9000 will bring a 17% hike in terms of bandwidth and a 15% reduction in latency. The Snapdragon 888 again falls behind when comparing the optic support for the two chipsets. MediaTek is also extending support for up to 320-megapixel image sensors on devices powered by it with the new Image Signal Processor (ISP). This not only surpasses the existing chipsets but also transcends the biggest available camera sensors on the smartphone market, which are currently only as big as 200MP. The Snapdragon 888’s Spectra 580 ISP can only process 2.7 gigapixels each second, whereas the Dimensity 9000’s revamped camera subsystem can process up to nine gigapixels per second.
I don’t think that I’d be wrong in saying that while a lot of Snapdragon chipsets are great, they are not perfect no matter how much hype is created. You need to use it along with its rival products to come to an informed decision and give out an accurate conclusion, which is the only way to be fair. So, in conclusion I would like to state that I have used products from both camps and only after I can say what I’m saying. There are also the matters of benchmarks and other scoring measures that will show you exactly this. While the Snapdragon 888 is a competent chipset, it does not come without its many glaring flaws too.