Mediatek News - $100 Quad-core MT6582 Smartphone, and Eight-core MT6592 Smartphones Available For Pre-order

Daxian XY100S was the first decent quad core smartphone I’d seen selling for less than $100, but for some reasons the price has since then been increased and now sells for at least $125 from Chinese online sellers with decent feedback. The other problem with this phone was the use of TD-SCDMA which meant 3G was not usable in places like Europe. There’s now another quad core phone based on Mediatek MT6582 called W450 that sells for $99.99 on GeekBuying (promotion that will last for about 24 hours more), but you can also find it on Aliexpress for $110 up including shipping. The good news is that it’s using WCDMA 850/2100MHz so 3G will be accessible in most countries.

W450 specifications:

SoC – Mediatek MT6582 Quad Core Cortex A7 up to 1.3GHz with ARM Mali-400MP2 GPU
System Memory – 1GB RAM
Storage – 4GB NAND Flash + micro SD card slot (up to 32GB)
Display – 4.5″ TFT Display with capacitive touchscreen. Resolution: 854×480
Network – 2G: GSM850/900/1800/1900MHz 3G: WCDMA 850/2100MHz. Data transfer GPRS/HSPA/EDGE. Dual SIM support.
Connectivity – WiFi 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth, built-in GPS with A-GPS support and voice navigation
Camera – 2.0MP front camera, 8.0MP rear camera with flash light and auto focus
Sensor – Proximity sensor, light sensor, and gravity sensor.
USB – Micro USB,
Audio – 3.5mm Jack, FM Radio
Battery – 1800mAh Lithium battery
Dimensions – 131x66x8.7mm
Weight – 155g

The package includes the Android 4.2 smartphone, the battery, a USB cable, a Power adapter, and a user’s manual. In case you wonder what’s the difference between MT6582 quad core A7 processor, and MT6589 quad core A7 processor, check out my earlier post about Mediatek smartphone and tablet processors comparison. Basically, MT6582 is clocked at 1.3GHz vs MT6589 at 1.2GHz, but it features a slower Mali-400MP2 GPU against the PowerVR SDGX544 GPU used in his older brother. Video decoding is limited to 720p, and maximum screen and camera resolutions are lower.

On the other end of the spectrum, and if you think you may benefit from a smartphone with an 8-core processor, which is not 100% certain, smartphones featuring Mediatek MT6592 octa-core Cortex A7 SoC are starting to show up for pre-order with prices ranging from about $280 to a ridiculous $1000. One of them is HTM H100 featuring the 8-core processor @ 2GHz, with a 5.7″ FHD display, 2GB RAM, and 16GB flash.

HTM-H100 Specifications:

SoC – Mediatek MT6592 eight core Cortex A7 @ 2.0GHz + ARM Mali-450MP GPU
System Memory – 2GB RAM
Storage – 16GB NAND Flash + micro SD card slot (up to 32 GB)
Display – 5.5″ I{S capacitive touch screen with 1920×1080 resolution
Network – Frequency 2G:GSM850/900/1800/1900MHz; 3G:WCDMA850/2100MHz. Data transfer GPRS/HSPA/EDGE. Dual SIM card support.
Connectivity – Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, and GPS
Camera – 2.0MP front camera, 13.0MP back camera with flash and auto focus.
Audio – 3.5mm Jack, FM Radio
Sensors – G-sensor, L-sensor, N-sensor
USB – Micro USB
Battery – 3200 mAh Lithium battery.
Dimensions – 152.7×79.4×8.3mm
Weight – 165g

The phones comes with earphones, two 3200mAh Li-ion battery, a USB cable, a power adapter, and a user’s manual. Initial reports indicated MT6592, or MTK6592 as incorrectly listed by all sellers, would feature a PowerVR Series6 GPU (SGX6XX), but it appears the SoC finally comes with an ARM Mali-450MP GPU. Some MT6592 benchmark results have recently been published showing a score of about 25,000 in Antutu 4.0 with MT6592 clocked at 1.7GHz. Mediatek expects to reach 30,000 points with the SoC clocked at 2.0 GHz.

You can pre-order HTM H100 for $289.99 on GeekBuying with shipping expected for the 12th of December 2013. I could not find this particular model on Aliexpress yet.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.