MediaTek Dimensity 820 5G Challenges The Snapdragon 765 With Dual SIM

MediaTek has been on a roll these past weeks, trying to make up for lost time in the mobile market. Of course, it has been aggressively pushing its 5G-enabled Dimensity brand but it has also launched a new mid-range Helio G85 chip for less premium gaming smartphones. Now it's announcing yet another chip, the Dimensity 820 that is clearly trying to take on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 765 with a special twist.

The comparison between the Dimensity 820 and the Snapdragon 765 is inevitable as both are slotted below their respective premium counterparts, the Dimensity 1000 and Snapdragon 865, respectively. Both make use of a mix of Cortex-A76 and Cortex-A55 CPUs but the Dimensity 820 might have a bit of an advantage. The octa-core formation is composed of four high-performance Cortex-A76 cores clocked at 2.6GHz and four power-efficient 2 GHz Cortex-A55 cores.

MediaTek's chip also bakes the 5G modem inside rather than as a separate package OEM can opt out of, exactly like the Snapdragon 765. This means, at least in theory, that every Dimensity 820 phone will have 5G support right out of the box though some might still have ways to disable that via software. Of course, that could mean that prices will go up but MediaTek's spiel has always been about making that technology available to the masses.

Its special sauce, however, will most likely be its Dual 5G SIM support, something that is still uncommon with 5G chipsets, meaning Qualcomm's. Considering the markets where MediaTek-powered phones are sold, that dual SIM capability will definitely be considered a selling point.

That said, the MediaTek 820's 5G support is limited to the sub-6GHz band, which could, in turn, limit what markets it would work in. It does cover a wide range of networks across Asia, Europe, and even North America but it remains to be seen which OEMs will jump on MediaTek's offer.