MediaTek’s Dimensity 800U is a 5G-capable chip for affordable flagships

MediaTek continues to push 5G to the mass market

What you need to know

• MediaTek today announced the Dimensity 800U.
• This chip is built to bring 5G to more affordable devices.
• It supports 5G technologies like dual SIM dual standby, theoretically useful in places where dual sim use is common.

MediaTek continues to release 5G enabled chips for lower-priced phones. This time, it has announced the Dimensity 800U, another chip aimed at powering more affordable high-performing phones. It’s another model for the Dimensity 800-series, following up the 820 announced earlier this year.

Dr. Yenchi Lee, Deputy General Manager of MediaTek’s Wireless Communications Business Unit said:

MediaTek has always focused on enhancing the user experience with our leading semiconductor technology, whether consumers are streaming, gaming or taking photos. Dimensity 800U brings cutting-edge, next-gen technology to the Dimensity SoC series, bringing MediaTek’s advanced 5G, imaging, and multimedia technologies to high-performance 5G smartphones that deliver incredible 5G experiences.

So let’s break down what MediaTek’s offering with this chip. On the more traditional, spec sheet part, phones with this will be able to support up to 120Hz FHD+ displays, they’ll be able to play HDR10+ content, and they’ll be able to support up to 64MP cameras with a quad-camera set up.

Connectivity-wise, the Dimensity 800 will come with support for sub-6Ghz standalone and son-standalone networks, support for 5G+5G dual sim dual standby, and dual Voice over New Radio support. Writing for Android Central about the differences between sub-6gz 5G and mmWave, Samuel Contreras said:

One of the most important aspects of Sub-6 5G is massive MIMO (multiple input multiple output) which allows for more simultaneous connections, better consistency in dense areas, and a stronger base to grow on. As time goes on, mmWave 5G will slowly cover more people and carry us into a wireless future. For the immediate future, 5G on Sub-6 will do more to bring better speeds and greater consistency to mobile broadband with a clear upgrade path for faster 5G deployments.

Once again, as with the other MediaTek Dimensity 800-series chips, this one is meant to hit phones priced more affordably than flagships. While some of the technology being highlighted seems of dubious usefulness to the end-user at this stage, (Android Authority’s take on dual SIM 5G phones is a useful read here), progress is still progress. The more phones have 5G, the more 5G can become the new LTE.

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