MediaTek announces the Helio G80 chip aimed at mobile gaming on a budget

Taiwanese chip design company MediaTek is expanding its line of mid-range SoCs today with the introduction of the Helio G80. MediaTek’s G series of Helio chips is aimed at delivering great performance in mobile games without increasing the price significantly beyond the reach of the average consumer. The first chip in the Helio G series was the Helio G90/G90T, announced back in July of last year and shipping in the Redmi Note 8 Pro. Last month, MediaTek announced the Helio G70 aimed at budget-oriented gaming devices, and Realme has confirmed its upcoming Realme C3 will feature the chip. The new Helio G80 is slotted between the G70 and the G90, though in terms of performance, it’s closer to the G70 than the G90. We expect to see the G80 appear in budget gaming smartphones shipping later in India this month.

The new SoC has an octa-core CPU consisting of 2 ARM Cortex-A75 cores clocked at a maximum frequency of 2.0GHz paired with 6 ARM Cortex-A55 cores clocked at a maximum frequency of 1.8GHz. The GPU is ARM’s Mali-G52 clocked at 950MHz, a slight frequency bump compared to the Helio G70. The SoC supports up to 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM clocked at 1800MHz. Unlike the higher-end Helio G90, the Helio G80 doesn’t support UFS technology for storage chips. The G80’s ISP supports a single 25MP camera with ZSL and dual 16MP cameras with ZSL, like the G70. The display, modem, and connectivity specifications are also unchanged from the G70. Overall, the Helio G80 is a Helio G70 with a slight bump in the maximum CPU frequencies of the Cortex A55 cores and a slight bump in the maximum GPU frequency. When comparing the MediaTek Helio G80 to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips, the G80 is closest to the Snapdragon 710 in terms of performance.

Specification	MediaTek Helio G70	MediaTek Helio G80	MediaTek Helio G90/G90T
CPU	2x ARM Cortex A75 @ 2.0GHz 6x ARM Cortex A55 @ 1.7GHz 12nm fabrication	2x ARM Cortex A75 @ 2.0GHz 6x ARM Cortex A55 @ 1.8GHz 12nm fabrication	2x ARM Cortex A76 @ 2.0GHz (2.05GHz on G90T) 6x ARM Cortex A55 @ 2.0 GHz 12nm fabrication
GPU	ARM Mali-G52 MC2 @ 820MHz	ARM Mali-G52 MC2 @ 950MHz	ARM Mali-G76 3EEMC4 @ 720MHz (800MHz on G90T)
AI	No dedicated APU	No dedicated APU	2x MediaTek APU @ 750MHz
Memory	1x LPDDR3 @ 933 MHz, up to 4GB 2x LPDDR4X @ 1800MHz, up to 8GB eMMC 5.1	1x LPDDR3 @ 933MHz, up to 4GB 2x LPDDR4X @ 1800MHz, up to 8GB eMMC 5.1	2x LPDDR4X @ 2133MHz, up to 10GB UFS 2.1, eMMC 5.1
Camera	25MP @ 30fps 16MP+16MP @ 30fps 48MP 4-cell @ 17fps	25MP @ 30fps 16MP+16MP @ 30fps 48MP 4-cell @ 17fps	48MP @ 30fps 24MP+16MP @ 30fps 64MP @ 22.5fps
Display	FHD+ @ 60Hz	FHD+ @ 60Hz	FHD+ @ 60Hz (@90Hz on G90T)
Modem	Cat-7, 2xCA	Cat-7, 2xCA	Cat-12, 3xCA
Connectivity	1×1 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS+GLONASS+Beidou+Galileo	1×1 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS+GLONASS+Beidou+Galileo	1×1 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS+GLONASS+Beidou+Galileo

Athough the Helio G80 lacks any dedicated AI accelerators, including the APU found in the Helio G90, MediaTek says the chip’s ISP is capable of features such as object recognition in Google Lens, Smart Photo Album, scene detection, scene segmentation with background removal, portrait-mode enhancements, and facial recognition. MediaTek also says the chip supports the company’s HyperEngine Game Technology which was first announced for the Helio G90. Other features include Voice on Wakeup (VoW) support, EIS, Rolling Shutter Compensation, and an inertial navigation engine.

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