Over the course of the last 12 months, MediaTek has revamped its chipset lineup with the launch of the Dimensity series, bringing 5G capabilities to lower price points. However, they were confined to Mainland China until now. That is finally about to change as MediaTek is now entering the U.S.
In November 2019, MediaTek announced its first high-end flagship chipset in years — the Dimensity 1000. Not only was it able to run shoulders with the competition, but also lowered the cost of 5G smartphones. The other members of the Dimensity family brought that entry point even lower. Almost a year and half a dozen SoCs later, MediaTek is finally going global.
A new chipset, called the MediaTek Dimensity 1000C will power mid-range 5G smartphones in the U.S. Specifically developed for the market, some of its key features include support for AV1 HDR which can be used for Netflix, YouTube and Twitch. It is also the company’s first chipset to support dual integrated voice wakeup to reduce power consumption while summoning Google Assistant or Alexa using the hotword. It is also the first one to support dual display output.
The Dimensity 1000C also brings support for 5G carrier aggregation for a more seamless handover between two connections. It can also function over FDD (Frequency Division Duplex) and TDD (Time Division Duplex) simultaneously. It is also supposed to be 45% more efficient than the competition. Eight cores running at up to 2GHz along with the five-core Mali G57 GPU will run the show.
The new chipset will debut on a new variant of the LG Velvet, designed for T-Mobile’s 5G network across the U.S. This will be the third variant of the Velvet, with the previous ones being powered by the Snapdragon 765G (5G) and the Snapdragon 845. It is also listed to have a slightly smaller 4,000mAh battery. Other specifications seem to be the same, with a tall 6.8-inch OLED display, a triple camera stack on the back and IP68 and MIL-STD-810 certification. It will retail for $588 off-contract.
MediaTek did announce that Dimensity-powered smartphones will be available in more countries starting Q3, which could be an indication of more devices to come in the near future.
