While the future is 5G, the sun has not yet set on the Helio line of chipsets – in fact, MediaTek just refreshed the upper echelons with the reveal of the Helio G96 and Helio G88. Note that, despite their names, these are not strict upgrades over the G95 and G85.
The Helio G96 features are pair of Cortex-A76 cores clocked at 2.05 GHz and six A55 cores, same as the G95. However, its GPU is only a Mali-G57 MC2, a clear downgrade from the G76 MC4 that came before.
MediaTek unveils the Helio G95 and G88 chipsets
The chip is not without upgrades, however. For one, it supports 120 Hz displays (LCD and OLED alike) at up to 1080p+ resolution, up from 90 Hz. Also, the max camera resolution has been increased to support the 108 MP sensors that are available on the market, though video capture is still capped at 4K @ 30 fps.
Further upgrades include support for faster LTE (Cat 13 downlink), faster storage (UFS 2.2) and a newer Bluetooth version (5.2).
The Helio G88 is much more similar to its predecessor. It has the same pair of Cortex-A75 cores running at 2.0 GHz joined by six A55 cores. The Mali-G52 MC2 GPU runs at the same 1 GHz frequency. Even RAM and storage support are the same, the LTE modem is the same as well.
What has changed is that the G88 supports 90 Hz displays at up to 1080p+ resolution (the G85 seems to be capped at 90 Hz @ 720p+). Also, the main camera can have a 64 MP sensor, up from 48 MP.
| Helio G96 | Helio G95 | Helio G88 | Helio G85 | |
| Big cores | 2x Cortex-A76 @ 2.05 GHz | 2x Cortex-A76 @ 2.05 GHz | 2x Cortex-A75 @ 2.0 GHz | 2x Cortex-A75 @ 2.0 GHz |
| Small cores | 6x Cortex-A55 | 6x Cortex-A55 | 6x Cortex-A55 | 6x Cortex-A55 |
| GPU | Mali G57 MC2 | Mali-G76 MC4 | Mali-G52 MC2 @ 1.0 GHz | Mali-G52 MC2 @ 1.0 GHz |
| Display | 120 Hz @ 1080p+ | 90 Hz @ 1080p+ | 90 Hz @ 1080p+ | 90 Hz @ 720p+, 60 Hz @ 1080p+ |
| RAM | LPDDR4X @ 2133 MHz | LPDDR4X @ 2133 MHz | LPDDR4x @ 1800 MHz | LPDDR4x @ 1800 MHz |
| Storage | UFS 2.2 | UFS 2.1 | eMMC 5.1 | eMMC 5.1 |
| Max cam resolution | 108 MP | 64 MP | 64 MP | 48 MP |
| Video capture | 4K @ 30 fps | 4K @ 30 fps | 1080p @ 60 fps | 1080 @ 60 fps |
| LTE modem (downlink) | Cat 13 | Cat 12 | Cat 7 | Cat 7 |
| Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi 5 (a/b/g/n/ac) | Wi-Fi 5 (a/b/g/n/ac) | Wi-Fi 5 (a/b/g/n/ac) | Wi-Fi 5 (a/b/g/n/ac) |
| Bluetooth | Bluetooth 5.2 | Bluetooth 5.0 | Bluetooth 5.0 | Bluetooth 5.0 |
Both the Helio-G96 and G88 were upgraded to HyperEngine 2.0 Lite and support dual-SIM operation with VoLTE. They also feature new camera processing tricks, e.g. 3DNR and MFNR noise reduction in hardware for the G96.
Haslinda has worked with some of the largest telcos in North America and Asia. She loves tech and doesn’t like iPhone
