Which is better: Qualcomm or MediaTek?
There has always been an intense competition between MediaTek and Qualcomm in the market. The American corporation Qualcomm came into the market with its Snapdragon processors almost over a year before MediaTek and at that time there had been a complete monopoly of Qualcomm in the mid-range market. Before MediaTek, the budget segment was practically unheard of. In India, 10k is the upper limit of the budget segment and above that the mid-range segment begins. When it comes to the budget segment, the smartphones powered by MediaTek processors rule the budget segment at the moment, with the MediaTek Helio P22 processor powering the largest number of smartphones in that segment, and a good portion with MediaTek Helio A22 as well. Aside from this, the arrival of chipsets such as MediaTek Helio P60 and MediaTek Helio P70 in the budget segment (which powers phones such as Realme 3, Realme 3i, Moto One Macro) has made sure that the competition is squeezed out of the market.
Now, in terms of technology, both MediaTek processors as well as the Snapdragon chipsets are very powerful and efficient. But what MediaTek has an edge over, is the price. The majority of the budget phones, if not all, are powered by MediaTek and for the price, they give a very good performance and money’s worth. MediaTek’s progress has been very swift in terms of growth, development and therefore its popularity increased. So, it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to state that MediaTek sure has overpowered competitors. Talking in regards to the current scenario, it is quite safe to say that the MediaTek processors are much better than the ones produced by Qualcomm due to a number of factors and comparisons like core, cost, battery, and performance.
Although there are smartphones with Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 chipset, Snapdragon 439 and Snapdragon 665 in the budget segment that are fairly good, MediaTek powered phones are still the more popular ones among consumers. Qualcomm and MediaTek have both been leaders in providing world-class products to their devoted customers. However, the debate on the better brand could only be settled by looking at both their performances in similar criteria.
Built:
Both MediaTek and Snapdragon have impeccable hardware and software. Qualcomm is known for its in-house CPU which are 64-bit Kryo core and 32-bit Krait core. These ARM CPUs may be either customized or semi-customized and are based on ARM that have been enhanced for their performance. The series of in-house designed GPUs in Qualcomm is known as Adreno. MediaTek uses a Mali brand ARM Holdings GPU.
Cost of the chipset:
Talking about cost, MediaTek is clearly the winner in this aspect. MediaTek chipsets have always been priced much less at the same level of performance as the Snapdragon chipsets. This is also one of the major reasons for most smartphones employing MediaTek chipsets, especially in the budget segment, and all this is without any compromise to performance.
Performance:
Performance-wise, both are great in most terms but the MediaTek processors still have a bit of an edge over its competitor. For example, when comparing the lowest MediaTek Helio A22 with the Snapdragon 200 series, the specifications of the A22 are still better. Similarly, comparing the specs of MediaTek Helio chipsets P22 and P60 with that of the Snapdragon 400 and 600 series, the MediaTek chipsets would emerge better.
Battery Consumption:
Initially, the MediaTek chipsets used to hugely consume batter and in turn, had heating issues. But now this has been rectified to a large extent and those issues have lessened considerably. With most smartphones packed with massive batteries, the MediaTek chipsets have definitely become a lot better in saving their power. The Qualcomm Snapdragon processors are notorious for their heating issues, which in turns drains the device battery much faster.
Now, looking at all the comparisons one can significantly deduce which trumps which.
