We can all say that 2018 has been a very good year for mobile processors. We’ve seen the debut of many processors (mobile platforms). We’ve all seen MediaTek Helio P70 and Qualcomm and their race in producing the best chipset.
Helio P70 has good specs, including a TSMC 12nm FinFET and an AI Processing Unit (APU). However, Snapdragon 660 is the best mid-range processor from the 600-series from Qualcomm. Both of them offer the best smartphone performance for their price.
We’ve written this article to help you understand which one is better for you.
With regards to performance
Performance is a very important thing when it comes to mobile processors. A few years ago, the Samsung’s 14nm LTT process was the standard one for the mid-range processors.
Now, the makers opt for smaller nodes, thing that boosts the performance of the devices and keeps the thermals in control.
Helio P70 comes with an octa-core processor, that has four ARM Cortex A73 cores working for the performance of the device, and four ARM Cortex A53 cores working for the efficiency of the cores. Both of them are clocked at 2.1GHz and 2.0GHz, respectively. This arrangement comes with Mali G72 GPU, which has 900MHz. Also, it has conventional cores arrangement.
The Snapdragon 660 works differently. It comes (and it’s the first one that does this) with custom Qualcomm Kryo 260 CPU cores. They consist in four Cortex-A73 cores that work for performance, and that are clocked at 2.2GHz, and four Cortex-A53 cores that work for efficiency and that are clocked at 1.7GHz. It also comes with the Adreno 512 GPU.
The thing is that the Kryo 260 cores are made on a 14nm process, which is a bit of a step back from the 12nm fabrication process, that we have when it comes to Helio P70.
With regards to camera
The camera for Helio P70 has the same specs as Helio P60 did, so we meet again with the triple image signal processor. P70 supports about 24MP + 16MP worth of dual camera array. If it comes with a single camera gig – which is a bit rare – it can support a 32MP shooter. The features are AI facial detection, a faster shooting mode, and real-time HDR capture.
Qualcomm has launched the Qualcomm Clear Sight and Spectra 160 ISP chip. They both come with great features, the Spectra 160 ISP chip comes with a faster autofocus and accurate color reproduction.
However, we’re not quite sure how the team behind the devices will put these techniques on the camera modules.
The Snapdragon 660 can support a 25-megapixel camera or two 16-megapixel cameras.
With regards to artificial intelligence
Helio P70 follows the steps of P60 for artificial intelligence. It comes with AMU – Artificial Intelligence Processing Unit, which comes in handy for pose detection, the identification of objects, automatic scene recognition and facial recognition. This features can combine with the MediaTek NeuroPilot and it can deliver more artificial intelligent processing efficiency if we are to compare it to its predecessor.
When it comes to Snapdragon 660, we have Qualcomm’s Neural Processing Engine (NPE) and Qualcomm’s Artificial Intelligence Engine (AIE). The first one deals with finding and assigning the right component for the artificial intelligence-related tasks. Both of them support the common artificial intelligence frameworks, such as Caffe, Caffe 2, TF Lite.
We think that both MediaTek Helio P70 and Snapdragon 660 are very good for mid-range chipsets. They come with different features, but it’s safe to say that Snapdragon 660 is a bit ahead than its competition – thanks to Adreno 512 GPU.
As a passionate gamer since the 1990s, Vadim has kept his passion alive since then, and he is here to cover video games news, as well as to share with you all the novelties out there regarding gadgets or games-related tech.
