MediaTek Dimensity 900 6nm SoC brings UFS 3.1, LPDDR5 to mid-range 5G smartphones

Arm Cortex-A78 and LPDDR5 would have been premium features not so long ago, but time flies, and the just-announced MediaTek Dimensity 900 5G SoC for mid-range smartphones includes two Cortex-A78 cores, six Cortex-A55 cores, support for LPDRR5/4 memory, UFS 3.1 storage, and of course 5G cellular connectivity up to 2.77Gbps.

The mobile processor’s multimedia capabilities are pretty good as well with support for displays up to 2520 x 1080 resolution at 120 Hz, up to 108MP camera, 4Kp30 video with H.265, H.264, AV1, as well as an Arm Mali-G68 MC4 GPU and third-generation APU 3.0 AI accelerator.

MediaTek Dimensity 900 specifications:

CPU – Octa-core DynamIQ processor with 2x Arm Cortex-A78 @ Up to 2.4GHz, 6x Arm Cortex-A55 @ Up to 2GHz
GPU – Arm Mali-G68 MC4
AI Accelerator – MediaTek APU 3.0
VPU
- Video Encoding – H.264, H.265 / HEVC up to 4K @ 30FPS
- Video Playback – H.264, H.265 / HEVC, MPEG-1/2/4, VP-9, AV1 up to 4K @ 30FPS, HDR10+
Memory – LPDDR4x, LPDDR5
Storage – UFS 2.1, UFS 3.1
Display – Up to 2520 x 1080 with 120Hz refresh rate
Camera
- ISP support up to 108MP, 20MP + 20MP @ 30 fps
- Max Video Capture resolution – 3840 x 2160
- Features – 4K hardware video HDR, 3X HDR-ISP, MFNR, 3DNR, AINR, Hardware Depth Engine, Warping Engine
Connectivity
- Cellular Technologies
  - 5G – FDD/TDD, Carrier Aggregation (CA)
  - 4G – FDD/TDD, Carrier Aggregation (CA)
  - 3G – TD-SCDMA, WCDMA
  - 2G – EDGE, GSM
  - Dual 5G SIM
  - Specific Functions – SA & NSA modes; SA Option2, NSA Option3/3a/3x, NR TDD Band, NR FDD Band, DSS, NR DL 2CC, 120 MHz bandwidth, 256QAM NR UL 2CC, 256QAM VoNR / EPS fallback
  - Peak 5G download speed – 2.77Gbps
- 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax Wi-Fi 6 with 2T2R antenna
  Bluetooth 5.2
- GNSS – GPS L1CA+L5, BeiDou B1I+ B2a, Glonass L1OF, Galileo E1 + E5a, QZSS L1CA+ L5, NavIC
Process – TSMC 6nm

Mediatek Dimensity 900 Block Diagram — Mediatek Dimensity 900 “Block Diagram”

That means Dimensity 900 “mid-range” processor is now basically better than the Dimensity 1000 “premium” SoC announced at the end of 2019, except for 4Kp60 support and the faster 4.7Gbps 5G download speed.

The new MediaTek Dimensity 900 is expected to found in smartphones launched in Q2 2021, which would be this month or next. More details may be found on the product page and press release.

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.