MediaTek has refreshed its budget-friendly Helio chipset lineup with two new additions: MediaTek Helio G96 and Helio G88. The Helio G96 succeeds the Helio G95, while the G88 is a follow-up to the Helio G85. If the smaller number bump didn't already tip you off, both chips are a minor upgrade over their predecessors. There aren’t any drastic changes to the CPU or GPU architecture, if at all, but there are some improvements to display support, connectivity, and camera.

Helio G96

Let’s start with the MediaTek Helio G96. It has the same CPU as the Helio G95. That means we’re still looking at an octa-core setup featuring two ARM Cortex-A76 performance cores clocked at up to 2.05GHz and six ARM Cortex-A55 efficiency cores running at up to 2.0GHz. Strangely, the new chipset uses a Mali-G57 MC2 unit, which is a step down from the Mali-G76 MC4 on the G95. The decision to downgrade the GPU could be to force OEMs to choose the Dimensity 700 5G over the Helio G series.

MediaTek Helio G96 infographic

The biggest upgrade on the new model is that it can now power 120Hz displays at up to 1080p+ resolution, a step up from 90Hz 1080+ on the Helio G95. MediaTek says the display support has no limitation in DDIC supply, C-phy or D-phy interface and can handle both LCD and AMOLED panels. Another area of improvement is the camera, as the chip now supports 108MP sensors, a big jump from 64MP support on the G95. Elsewhere the Helio G96 brings faster LTE speed (Cat 13), support for UFS 2.2 flash storage, and Bluetooth 5.2.

Helio G88

MediaTek Helio G88 infographic

As for the MediaTek Helio G88, it's an even smaller upgrade. It keeps the same CPU and GPU but now supports 90Hz panels at up to 1080p+ resolution — the Helio G85 could only push 90Hz panels at 720p+. The camera sensor support has been increased from 48MP to 64MP, but there's still no 4K support. Pretty much everything else, including the RAM and storage support, modem, connectivity features, and so on, are the same across the Helio G88 and Helio G85.