Recognition: David Imel / Android Authority
MediaTek was in the news last month after tracking company Omdia discovered in 2020 that it is the world’s largest smartphone chipset company. This would be the first time the Taiwanese chipmaker has achieved this goal, with its success attributed to the lower and mid-range segments.
This message asked us if Android Authority Readers would be looking at a MediaTek-enabled phone in 2021. We released a poll last week and here’s how you voted.
Are you considering buying a MediaTek phone in 2021?
Results
The poll was released on March 29th and at the time of writing it had received just over 1,300 votes. Unfortunately for the chip maker, nearly two-thirds of the readers surveyed said they wouldn’t consider buying a MediaTek-powered phone this year.
There’s no word on why people voted this way, but enthusiasts have traditionally stayed away from MediaTek chipsets for a variety of reasons. Qualcomm’s high-end chipsets traditionally offer better performance (especially with GPUs) as well as better driver support for emulators and other tasks. Another oft-repeated criticism of MediaTek is that the source code is more difficult to obtain, making custom ROM development and general device tinkering more challenging.
Still, a sizable fraction of surveyed readers (~ 34.4%) said they would actually consider a MediaTek-enabled phone this year. Some of the comments suggest that MediaTek phones offer a lot of cash for the mid-range. Some of the most famous budget phones in this regard are the Redmi 9, Redmi Note 10 5G, Samsung Galaxy A32 5G, and Realme 8.
Remarks
- Archœn Sâbré: As long as there is no tracking hardware and software built into MediaTek, it may be worth considering as the prices of their devices are competitive compared to Qualcomm
- Plumplum: I’m waiting for a D1100 or D1200 with a good camera setup in Europe … Kind: 64 or 108MP Gen 2 Main with OIS, 13MP Ultrawide, 13MP Telephoto x4 or x5 with OIS (no x2, it’s useless with Hi-Res Main). Still no trustworthy information about cameras on Redmi gaming phone or Realme GT Neo. But it’s a whim, because my Helio G90T is still fine!
- Montisaquadeis: I will never touch people like Mediatek, Allwinner or Rockchip. Personally wait to see how Samsung will measure once a SOC with AMD’s RDNA2 get on board
- MD. Faraz Ahmad: I’m just thinking about buying a Dimensions-based processor smartphone in 2021, not Helio. Or I’ll buy Snapdragon 750G. Let’s see how much lower the price of Snapdragon 480 is.
- Roberto Suarez: Right here … I’ll only buy 5G for myself, my kids. And I only recommend 5G for my family and friend. Media Dimensity 5G series is one of the good and affordable chipsets. I also hope the Snapdragon 480 & 690 will join the affordable 5G range.
Thank you for your vote and your comment! Would you consider a MediaTek-enabled phone in 2021? Let us know in the comments!