Dimensity 8100 and 8000 announced, first smartphones coming in March
The Dimensity 9000 is challenging Qualcomm in the flagship segment, now MediaTek unveiled its high-end competitors â Dimensity 8000 and 8100. Both are 5 nm chips that are built up of essentially the same hardware. However, the 8100 is a winning ticket for the silicon lottery and runs at higher clock speeds. There is also the Dimensity 1300, a small upgrade over the existing 1200 chip.
The two 8000 chips feature four Cortex-A78 big CPU cores and four A55 little ones. The GPU is a Mali-G610 MC6, which uses ARMâs latest GPU architecture. Between the two, the Dimensity 8100 will offer 20% higher GPU frequency than the 8000. MediaTekâs testing shows the 8100 hitting 170 fps in GFXBench Manhattan (offscreen), the 8000 did 140 fps.
Both chips feature the MiraVision 780 with support for a 168 Hz refresh rate at FHD+ resolution. One difference in the 8100 chip is that it also supports 120Hz at WQHD+. Both also have 4K AV1 video decoders and support for HDR10+ Adaptive (adjusting HDR10+ content to ambient light conditions).
The Imagiq 780 ISP can handle 5 gigapixels per second and record HDR video from two cameras simultaneously, as well as 4K 60 fps HDR10+ recording with one camera. This ISP can handle cameras with up to 200 MP sensors, natively supports 2x lossless zoom and AI-powered noise reduction and HDR imaging.
Both chipsets come with 5G modems (3GPP Release 16) with two carrier aggregation for up to 200 MHz of bandwidth. This allows for up to 4.7 Gbps download speeds. The modem supports 5G+5G Dual SIM, Dual Standby mode.
Locally, there is Wi-Fi 6E (2x2) support, Bluetooth 5.3 and Bluetooth LE Audio with Dual-Link True Wireless Stereo Audio. Positioning includes support for BeiDouâs new B1C frequency.
| Dimensity 1200 | Dimensity 8000 | Dimensity 8100 | Dimensity 9000 | |
| Node | 6 nm | 5 nm | 5 nm | 4 nm |
| CPU (big) | 1x Cortex-A78 @ 3.0 GHz | - | - | 1x Cortex-X2 @ 3.05 GHz |
| CPU (medium) | 3x Cortex-A78 @ 2.6 GHz | 4x Cortex-A78 @ 2.75 GHz | 4x Cortex-A78 @ 2.85 GHz | 3x Cortex-A710 @ 2.85 GHz |
| CPU (small) | 4x Cortex-A55 @ 2.0 GHz | 4x Cortex-A55 @ 2.0 GHz | 4x Cortex-A55 @ 2.0 GHz | 4x Cortex-A510 @ 1.8 GHz |
| RAM | LPDDR4X (up to 4,266 Mbps) | LPDDR5 (up to 6,400 Mbps) | LPDDR5 (up to 6,400 Mbps) | LPDDR5X (up to 7,500 Mbps) |
| Storage | UFS 3.1 | UFS 3.1 | UFS 3.1 | UFS 3.1 |
| GPU | Mali-G77 MC9 | Mali-G610 MC6 | Mali-G610 MC6 (20% faster than 8000) | Mali-G710 MC10 |
| Display | FHD+ @ 168 Hz | FHD+ @ 168 Hz | FHD+ @ 168 Hz, WQHD+ @ 120 Hz | FHD+ @ 180 Hz, WQHD+ @ 144 Hz |
| Camera (stills) | 200 MP | 200 MP (5 Gpixel/s IPS) | 200 MP (5 Gpixel/s IPS) | 320 MP (9 Gpixel/s IPS) |
| Camera (video) | 4K @ 60 fps | 4K @ 60 fps (HDR10+), dual recording | 4K @ 60 fps (HDR10+), dual recording | 4K @ 60 fps (HDR10+), triple recording |
| 5G | 4.7 Gbps downlink, 2.5 Gbps uplink | 4.7 Gbps downlink | 4.7 Gbps downlink | 7 Gbps downlink, 2.5 Gbps uplink |
| Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi 6 (2x2) | Wi-Fi 6E (2x2) | Wi-Fi 6E (2x2) | Wi-Fi 6E (2x2) |
| Bluetooth | 5.2 | 5.3 | 5.3 | Bluetooth 5.3 |
As for the Dimensity 1300, itâs nearly identical to the 1200, the only upgrade we noticed is the improved NPU performance that offers more number-crunching power for night mode and HDR processing with AI.
Smartphones powered by a Dimensity 1300, 8000 or 8100 chipset will be on the market in the first quarter of 2022, so basically expect a lot of launches in March, coming from âsome of the worldâs biggest smartphone brandsâ.