MediaTek's 4nm Dimensity 7200 Flexes Octa-Core Muscle For Affordable Mobile Gaming Phones
In just the past two months, we've seen MediaTek roll out no less than three mobile chipsets designed for flagship and upper-tier midrange smartphones. Following up on those release, MediaTek today announced a cheaper slice of silicon for more affordable smartphones, the Dimensity 7200, while still offering "powerful gaming optimizations" and "cutting-edge AI imaging features."
MediaTek also points out that the Dimensity 7200 is the inaugural chipset in its newly unveiled Dimensity 7000 series, which suggests that further additions are on tap. For now there's just one, and while it targets cheaper handsets, there are some high-tech highlights to note.
Chief among them is the octa-core design. It's also notable that the the Dimensity 7200 is built on the same TSMC second-generation 4-nanometer manufacturing process as MediaTek's flagship Dimensity 9200 that debuted last November, which itself supplanted the 9000+ released last June.
The core makeup of the Dimensity 7200 consists of two Arm Cortex-A715 cores clocked at up to 2.8GHz for high-performance chores, and six Cortex-A510 cores for less demanding tasks (as well as to help preserve battery life). According to MediaTek, the Dimensity 7200 edges out Qualcomm's Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 SoC in Geekbench, as a point of reference.
A large portion of the SoC is also dedicated to the Arm Mali-G610 MC4 CPU for graphics and gaming. The Mali-G610 is based on Arm's third-generation Valhall architecture for "sub-premium devices" (like the Radxa Rock 5A SBC) with support for the latest APIs including Vulkan, OpenGL, and OpenCL. This is aided by MediaTek's HyperEngine 5.0 technology to deliver AI-based variable rate shading (VRR), along with various optimizations for smoother gameplay and better battery life.
Also on tap is support for 200-megapixel main cameras and 4K HDR video, enabled by MediaTek's Imagiq 765 and 14-bit HDR-ISP. The chipset enables photographers to simultaneously capture content from dual cameras at 1080p, which in turn can help with nighttime and low-light photography.
"The MediaTek Dimensity 7000 series will be vital for mobile gamers and photography enthusiasts who are looking for an affordable way to squeeze the most battery life out of their phones without skimping on performance," said CH Chen, Deputy General Manager of MediaTek’s Wireless Communications Business Unit.
As with most modern chipsets, 5G connectivity is part of the package. The Dimensity 7200 is equipped with a Sub-6GHz modem supporting download speeds of up to 4.7Gbps. Additionally, it supports tri-band Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity.
Overall it looks like a promising chipset for cheaper handsets, at least where available. Dimensity chipsets don't often find their way to US soil, though MediaTek says the Dimensity 7200 will power 5G devices launching globally in the first quarter of this year (so by the end of March).
