MediaTek Announces the Helio X23 and Helio X27

After unveiling their flagship SoC, the 10nm-based Helio X30, earlier in September, MediaTek has announced two other upgrades in the Helio family: the MediaTek Helio X23 and the MediaTek Helio X27. The new Helio SoCs upgrade the overall performance, camera quality and power consumption of the SoC family.

The aim here is to improve the user experience along with offering a range of performance options for OEMs for their product differentiation needs.

Both the MediatTek Helio X23 and the X27 continue along MediaTek’s Tri-Cluster Deca-Core architecture on a 20nm process, with cluster setups of 2x Cortex-A72 + 4x Cortex-A53 + 4x Cortex-A53, which is similar to the previously released Helio X20 and X25. The differences manifest themselves in the various clock speeds of the clusters, the clock speeds of the GPU and the presence of what MediaTek is calling “EnergySmart Screen” feature.

As the number would imply, the X27 takes over the X25 as the currently highest-end SoC in the X20 Series, while the X23 offers an improvement over the X20 in clock speeds. Further, the Helio X27 also leads the pack in the GPU, with a slight increase in speed of the Mali-T880 MP4 from 850MHz in the X25 to 875MHz. The table below better encapsulates the differences in the SoCs:

MediaTek is claiming best in-class performance and power consumption with the new SoCs, with overall processing improvement of more than 20% and “significant” increases in Web browsing and application launching speeds. The SoCs also support dual camera photography with MediaTek’s upgraded Imagiq ISP (Image Signal-Processing) solution, which MediaTek claims is the first ISP to integrate color and mono cameras and depth-of-field applications into a single ISP.

With regards to MiraVision EnergySmart Screen technology, this is a power-saving tech which modifies the display parameters based on the on-screen content and ambient lighting, claiming up to 25% reduction in display power consumption while maintaining the best visual experience possible. It will be interesting to see this technology in practice through competent OEMs on good displays and experience the quality tradeoff (or as MediaTek claims, the lack of tradeoff).

The press release provided by MediaTek does not mention any timeline for the SoCs, but assures that smartphones powered by these new SoCs will be available soon.

What are your thoughts on the newest additions to the X20 series? Let us know in the comments below!