14 DAY TRIAL // Taiwanese company MediaTek announced the availability of the MT6575 platform for entry to mid-level Android smartphones. The platform runs the latest Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system and is aimed at emerging and developing markets.
Specs-wise, MediaTek MT6575 offers 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor, 3G/HSPA modem, along with support for 720p high-definition video playback and recording with an 8-megapixel camera.
In addition, the platform is fully compatible with larger displays that support qHD (540 x 960 pixels) high-resolutions, courtesy to the integrated PowerVR SGX Series5 graphics processing unit manufactured by Imagination Technologies.
According to MediaTek, the MT6575 is much better than Qualcomm’s Snapdragon MSM7227A, its market equivalent. Results are based on several industry-standard benchmark tests, which proved that MediaTek’s platform offers 35% improvement for browser applications and over 20% improvement in graphics capabilities for gaming.
“Leveraging the energy-efficient, high-performance Cortex-A9 processor in Android smartphone applications is an extremely compelling proposition and a great proof point for the scalability of the ARM architecture,” said Laurence Bryant, director of Mobile, ARM.
It is also worth mentioning that MediaTek MT6575 platform offers support for 3D capabilities, along with dual-SIM. In addition, the platform supports low-end smartphones with smaller screens, lower resolution, less memory and reduced multimedia requirements.
MediaTek claims that its MT6575 platform is currently being integrated into the latest smartphone portfolios by many of its customers. It appears that the first smartphones based on MediaTek’s platform are expected to hit shelves in the first quarter of 2012.
“We are very excited by the prospects of the MT6575 platform. It combines MediaTek's innovative chipset technology with our proven reference design and complete software solution model. We believe this platform is ideally suited to enable our customers to address entry to mid-level smartphone cost and performance needs on a global basis -- today and tomorrow,” said Ching-Jiang Hsieh, president of MediaTek.