As a first step, Panasonic on Thursday unveiled a dual SIM 5-inch smartphone powered by MediaTek Inc.
Whether MediaTek can compete with Qualcomm and ST-Ericsson, Europe's new champion for wireless chips, remains to be seen.
Of the well-known handset brands only LG, a South Korean electronics giant, sells phones with MediaTek chips inside.
And MediaTek has started bundling in with its products, imaging sensors from a company called PixArt, to the detriment of OmniVision.
When asking about specifications, we were told to expect a MediaTek processor, microSD card slot, rear-facing camera and a SIM card slot.
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Performance was a bit more sluggish than during our Mediatek hands-on -- then again, the Scribe HD we handled was not running final software.
In 2008, MediaTek supplied complete reference designs for phone chipsets, which enabled manufacturers in the Shenzhen region of China to produce phones at an unbelievable pace.
The 9.3mm-thick phone comes with a 4.5-inch, 720p gapless IPS display, a 1.2GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6589 SoC, a removable 1, 800mAh battery, 8GB of built-in storage and microSD expansion.
According to the rumored specs, both are tipped to rely on MediaTek's quad-core Cortex-A7 SoC, include dual-SIM support and run Android 4.2.1 (skinned, of course).
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As a nice touch, Android 4.2 will be common among the bunch, as will backside-illuminated sensors on the cameras and the quad-core, 1.2GHz MediaTek MT6589 (Cortex A7) SoC.
One concerned the formation of the Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA) Foundation, initial founders of which include AMD, ARM Holdings, Imagination Technologies, MediaTek, and Texas Instruments (TI).
The N002 uses a MediaTek chip and just 4GB of storage, and earlier rumors have the N003 using MediaTek's frugal MT6589 alongside either 8GB or 32GB of space for its respective trim levels.
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Other than this omission, however, the Solo offers much of the same specs as before, which includes a single-core 1GHz MediaTek MT6575 SoC, a 4.3-inch qHD display, a 5-megapixel camera and a 1, 500mAh battery.
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The rest of the Vivo X1, however, is more bog-standard in comparison: MediaTek MT6577T processor (1.2GHz, dual core, Cortex-A9), 4.7-inch 960 x 540 IPS display, 1GB RAM, 16GB built-in storage, eight-megapixel main camera, 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera and WCDMA 2100 3G radio.
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Having gotten up close and personal with a working P780 (photos after the break), Sina Weibo user Lisancha added that said phone features dual-SIM with dual-standby, a quad-core MediaTek chipset (likely the Cortex-A7-based MT6589) and a launch date set for the second-half of May.
However, while Qualcomm continues to be the dominant player in the high-growth mobile chipset market, its market share is taking a hit due to growing competition from Broadcom and MediaTek, both of which have benefited from the popularity of low-end Android handsets in emerging markets.
The Android 4.1.2 handset features a 5-inch HD (1, 280 x 720) IPS display, 1GB RAM and offers enhanced functionality with an optional capacitive stylus and specialized apps such as a notebook and movie editor -- this in addition to packing that previously announced 1.2GHz quad-core MT6589 SoC from MediaTek.
The advanced adaptive streaming format has gained the support of IC vendors including Broadcom, MediaTek, and MStar, and has been selected to power video delivery for UK-based Dixons Retail's KNOWHOW Movies, German retailer Media Markt's Videodownloadshop, and Mei-Ah and China Mobile powered services that provides 4G LTE and 3G service subscribers instant access on their Android mobile devices to on-demand, catch-up TV.
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Measuring at 6.93mm thick (instead of the rumored 6.13mm), we're surprised that Oppo didn't set this to be the follow-up to the Finder: sure, it's 0.28mm thicker, but it also aces the latter with a 4.7-inch 720p in-cell display, a 1.2GHz quad-core chip with 1GB RAM (likely MediaTek's Cortex-A7-based MT6589 SoC), Android 4.2 and a sorely missed 3.5mm headphone jack -- so no micro-USB adapter required.
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