As per a report coming from China, Samsung could be sourcing 5G chipsets from MediaTek for its upcoming mid-range and budget smartphones, highlighting a shift in strategy.
Samsung has historically chosen to power its smartphones with its in-house Exynos chipsets. This was especially true for its mid-range and low-end smartphones which were seen implementing Exynos 96XX series chipsets. Some of the models opted for Snapdragon 6-series chipsets too.
The report from China Times states that Samsung is in talks with MediaTek for low-end 5G chipsets, which will presumably power future A and M series smartphones. The MediaTek Dimensity 1000 series of 5G-capable chipsets were unveiled recently and were confirmed to make an appearance on devices by Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi, and even Huawei.
The Dimensity lineup currently consists of the flagship MT6889 and the mid-range MT6885 and MT6873. Apparently, Samsung is interested in the latter two for its budget smartphones, making a switch from Exynos chipsets. MediaTek is aiming to be the first manufacturer to bring 5G to the budget segment before Qualcomm announces its next generation of Snapdragon 6-series chipsets. For context, Samsung has announced only one 5G SoC till now, with the high-end Exynos 990.
MediaTek Dimensity 1000 is in the limelight
The MediaTek Dimensity 1000 flagship chipset is built on a 7nm manufacturing process and has four high-performance Cortex A77 cores along with four Cortex A55 cores. The Mali G77 handles the graphics duties. It natively supports 5G in sub-6GHZ networks in both Standalone and Non-Standalone standards.
The first wave of Dimensity powered 5G devices are expected to arrive early next year and will compete with the likes of the Snapdragon 765G, which powers smartphones such as the Redmi K30 5G, Oppo Reno3 Pro and the Realme X50.
