MediaTek has just announced the Dimensity 800U, a new mid-range chipset in the company's Dimensity 800 series. This is the company’s sixth system-on-a-chip with an integrated 5G modem and the sixth chip in the Dimensity series overall.

The Dimensity 800U joins the Dimensity 720, Dimensity 800, Dimensity 820, Dimensity 1000, and Dimensity 1000+ in MediaTek's lineup of Dimensity SoCs with integrated 5G modems.

Here are some of the key features of the new MediaTek Dimensity 800U:

• It's fabricated on a 7nm manufacturing process (TSMC's 7nm FinFET).
• It has an octa-core CPU comprised of 2 ARM Cortex-A76 CPU cores clocked at up to 2.4GHz and 6 ARM Cortex-A55 CPU cores clocked at up to 2.0GHz.
• It features ARM's Mali-G57 GPU, an independent AI processing unit (APU), supports LPDDR4X RAM (up to 2133MHz), and supports UFS 2.1-class storage.
• It supports displays at up to Full HD+ resolution and 120Hz refresh rates. MediaTek also says it supports HDR10+ video as well as MediaTek's custom MiraVision PQ engine with additional HDR optimizations for videos.
• Its ISP supports up to 64MP image sensors as well as quad camera configurations.
• It has support for voice on wakeup (VoW), multiple trigger words and voice assistant services, and dual-mic noise reduction technology.
• Lastly, it has an integrated 5G modem with support for 5G+5G Dual Sim Dual Standby (DSDS), sub-6GHz 5G on SA and NSA networks, dual Voice over New Radio (VoNR), 5G two carrier aggregation (2CC 5G-CA), and MediaTek's 5G UltraSave technology.

The Dimensity 800 has 4 ARM Cortex-A76 CPU cores clocked at up to 2.0GHz and 4 ARM Cortex-A55 CPU cores clocked at up to 2.0GHz, while the Dimensity 820 has 4 ARM Cortex-A76 CPU cores clocked at up to 2.6GHz and 4 ARM Cortex-A55 CPU cores clocked at up to 2.0GHz. Therefore, the new Dimensity 800U will likely have better single-core performance than the Dimensity 800 but not the Dimensity 820, but it will have worse multi-core performance than both the Dimensity 800 and the Dimensity 820. The Dimensity 800 and Dimensity 820 also have an ARM Mali-G57 GPU like the new 800U, with the 800's Mali-G57 GPU having 4 cores and the 820's Mali-G57 GPU having 5 cores. According to MediaTek, the Dimensity 800U features up to 11% faster CPU performance and 28% faster GPU performance compared to the Dimensity 720, which itself has an ARM Mali-G57MC3.

Outside of China, there hasn’t been a single smartphone to launch with a MediaTek Dimensity chipset, although the company recently confirmed that devices with the chipsets will launch outside of China in Q3 2020.