Qualcomm comfortably dominates the chipset market, and with the current issues, Huawei/HiSilicon are facing the number of competitors has slimmed down.

However, MediaTek has stepped up their game in the past year or so. The Helio G90T was, and still is, an amazing affordable mid-range chipset that traded blows, even surpassing the performance of the SD720/730G chipsets.

The MediaTek Dimensity 1000 was the first chipset to be announced with an integrated 5G modem and one of the first chipsets to use the Arm Cortex A77 CPU. Sadly, it took forever for it to be implemented on phones, but has now started to become more widely available.

Since then, multiple other Dimensity chipsets have launched, all offering incredible performance at an affordable price point. Initially, these were all limited to phones in China, but with the launch of the OPPO Reno Z the western market now has access to these new mid-range 5G chipsets.

The launch of the OPPO Reno4 Z with the Dimensity 800 opened the doors for Dimensity chipsets to be used in more phones available in the UK and EU. There will be at least one more phone launching before the end of this month using a different Dimensity chipset to this.

So does MediaTek offer viable competition against Qualcomm?

For this comparison, I am only checking out the Snapdragon 765G, which is a popular choice this year, and the chipset Google opted to use on their Pixel 5. Qualcomm has just launched the SD750G which is available on the Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite, but I haven’t been able to get hold of a sample of this yet.

MediaTek Dimensity 800 vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G Specification

	Snapdragon 765G	Dimensity 820	Dimensity 800	Dimensity 800u	Dimensity 720
Manufacturing Process	Samsung 7nm EUV (7LPP)	7nm	7nm	7nm	7nm
CPU	1x Kryo 475 Prime (CA76) @ 2.4GHz 1x Kryo 475 Gold (CA76) @ 2.2GHz 6x Kryo 475 Silver (CA55) @ 1.8GHz	4x Cortex A76 @ 2.6GHz 4x Cortex A55 @ 2.0GHz	4x Cortex A76 @ 2.6GHz 4x Cortex A55 @ 2.0GHz	4x Cortex A76 @ 2.4GHz 4x Cortex A55 @ 2.0GHz	4x Cortex A76 @ 2.0GHz 4x Cortex A55 @ 2.0GHz
GPU	Adreno 620	Arm Mali-G57 MC4	Arm Mali-G57 MC4	Arm Mali-G57 MC3	Arm Mali-G57 MC3
RAM	2x 16-bit CH @ 2133MHz LPDDR4X / 17.0GB/s	LPDDR4x 2133MHz	LPDDR4x 2133MHz	LPDDR4x 2133MHz	LPDDR4x 2133MHz
Modem	Snapdragon X52 Integrated	Mediatek M70	Mediatek M70	Mediatek M70	Mediatek M70
AI	Hexagon 696 HVX + Tensor 5.4TOPS AI (Total CPU+GPU+HVX+Tensor)	Integrated	Integrated	Integrated	Integrated

The above table shows the ever-expanding range of Mediatek mid-range chipsets. Which perhaps gives us some insight into how Mediatek approaches things. They have launched a lot of options to cater for many price points, but they have done this be tweaking existing products to keep costs down.

So the Dimensity 800 originally sat at the top of the mid-range chipsets, the Dimensity 800U has its A76 clocks cut by 0.2Ghz and loses one Mali-G57 GPU core, then the Dimensity 720 has a more significant drop of 0.4Ghz on the Z76 cores.

The Dimensity 820 was launched later than the 800, being a supped up version with an additional GPU Core.

Qualcomm has technically done the same, they have the Snapdragon 765G, 765 and 768G, but the 768G is only used in one phone, and I am not sure if the none G 765 was used in anything.

With the CPU, there is a big difference with the design, Qualcomm uses a 1x1x4 layout with just two A76 cores, but Mediatek uses a design that is more typically associated with flagship chipsets using 4 big A76 cores and 4 smaller A55 cores.

Comparing the GPU is harder, but the benchmarks help with that.

MediaTek Dimensity 800 vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G Benchmarks

Antutu Benchmarks

Antutu Benchmark	Total	CPU	GPU	MEM	UX
Redmi 10X – Dimensity 820 3rd party review	401419	129050	123943	68754	79672
Huawei P40 Lite 5G – Kirin 820 By me	350308	113628	108027	69102	59551
Realme X7 – Mediatek Dimensity 800U Leak	341298	107310	90345	77329	66314
Realme X50 – Snapdragon 765G By me	323286	103663	94154	68007	57462
Oppo Find X2 Lite – Snapdragon 765G By me	323940	104845	92682	58053	68238
Oppo Reno4 Z – Mediatek Dimensity 800 By me	304485	102822	88856	60406	52401
Realme V5 – Mediatek Dimensity 720 Leak	301380	96385	73639	74302	57054

For this, I copied a table I have already used, this includes benchmarks from 3^rd party reviews and also leaked Antutu results. I decided to leave all the data there as it can show how misleading some data can be.

The lower specced Mediatek Dimensity 800U on the Realme X7 is reported 341298, I can confirm this is not 100% accurate. Also, it depends on how a phone handles a benchmark, Realme seems to have quite aggressive clocks on benchmarks causing the numbers to be a touch higher than expected.

Regardless, the Mediatek Dimensity 800 fares well, achieving just 6% less than the Oppo Find X2 Lite which I benchmarked previously.

Running the phone in performance mode, it is possible to inflate the Antutu benchmark to 325989, which is likely what is being done on some of these leaked Antutu results. However, I don’t find this to be an accurate representation of performance because I would never enable performance mode during regular usage.

Geekbench Benchmarks

	Single Core	Multi Core
Huawei P40 Lite 5G – Kirin 820	606	2304
TCL 10 5G – Snapdragon 765G	621	1924
Realme X50 – Snapdragon 765G	612	1899
Oppo Find X2 Lite – Snapdragon 765G	595	1799
Oppo Reno4 Z – Dimensity 800	503	2121

Similarly, the Dimensity 800 does well compared to the Snapdragon 765G on pricier phones. It scores 15% less on the single-core test, but outclasses the SD765G on multi-core thanks to those four A76 cores.

Running this in performance mode had some odd results, the single-core shot up to 534 but dropped the multi-core score down to 1793.

3DMark Benchmarks

	Slingshot Extreme OpenGL
Huawei P40 Lite – Kirin 820	4131
TCL 10 5G – Snapdragon 765G	3331
Realme X50 – Snapdragon 765G	3308
Oppo Find X2 Lite – Snapdragon 765G	3415
Oppo Reno4 Z Dimensity 800	3258

The trend continues, the Dimensity 800 is fractionally behind the SD765G. The difference is quite small here, just 1.5% when compared to the Realme X50. I would say this is quite important too, most recent chipsets have been more than powerful enough to do your day to day phone activities, it is only really gaming that taxes the phone a lot.

PCMark Benchmarks

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Lastly is the PC Mark benchmark, which is supposed to simulate mixed usage, giving you an idea of real-world performance across a range of tasks.

I have found this test to have some of the more erratic results because it depends on how the software/firmware handles frequencies for certain tasks.

This achieved a score of 7877

This is lower than the 8510 the Realme X50 scored but one point higher than the 7876 the TCL 10 5G scored.

They are all in the same ballpark, and this is what is most important.

One impressive benchmark I carried out was the PC Mark Battery test. I never really associate Mediatek with the best power efficiency, but the Oppo Reno4 Z 5G achieved 16 hours with its 4000mAh battery. The Realme X50 scores 15 hours but has a larger battery.

Real Work Performance

The point of benchmarks is that I can provide an objective figure for comparison. However, benchmarks are well known not to be that accurate.

For real-world usage, I struggle to tell the difference between the Realme X50 and the Oppo Reno4 Z 5G. They both have the same display panel which is IPS running at 2400 x 1080 running at 120Hz.

Everything runs incredibly well, at no point do I think either phone could do with extra performance, neither suffer from lags or slow-loading apps.

MediaTek Dimensity 800 vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G Pricing

Currently, it is just the Oppo Reno4 Z using the Dimensity 800 in the UK and Oppo are not always as aggressively priced as their sister brand Realme.

• Oppo Reno4 Z 5G with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage is £330 from Currys
• Realme X50 5G with 6GB of RAM and 128GB storage is £279
• OnePlus Nord 5G with 8GB RAM and 128GB Storage is £379
• TCL 10 5G with 6GB of RAM and 128GB is £399
• OPPO Find X2 Lite 5G with 8GB RAM and 128GB is £369.99
• OPPO Reno4 5G with 8GB RAM and 128GB is £499.99

So it is only the Realme that can offer the SD765G at a lower price than the Dimensity 800. While I love the affordable nature of the X50, my initial impression of the Reno4 Z is that it is better, and possible worth the extra money.

Overall

 The MediaTek Dimensity 800 comes within a few percent of the Qualcomm in overall performance while allowing brands to launch phones at a lower price point.

MediaTek has the potential to put serious pressure on Qualcomm in the mid-range of the market, and this is great for consumers.

I love Qualcomm, but without competition, they have no need to put the effort in, with MediaTek biting at their heels it will hopefully force Qualcomm to either compete more aggressively with pricing or push their

For your average user, the mid-range of the market has really started to shine in the past year or so. Unless you have specific demanding requirements, there is not much reason to go for a flagship device.

With the Mediatek Dimensity chipsets, things look even more promising; these are all coming in at lower price points than the SD765G while offering a similar level of performance.

Posted by Mighty Gadget Blog: UK Technology News and Reviews