Differences between Snapdragon and MediaTek processors

What is MediaTek?

MediaTek is producer of affordable, powerful Helio chipsets. MediaTek’s main advantage over Qualcomm is the price that can be up to two times lower for roughly the same performance. The biggest criticism for MediaTek’s processors is the extremely rapid warming and reach of high temperatures.

Characteristics of  MediaTek:

    Not so economical chipset – Big battery consumer.
    Greater heating rate due to a number of processor cores.
    A small, graphic chip that is not produced by MediaTek is integrated within this chipset.
    Process power is supreme.
    In general chipsets offer more cores per processor.


What is Snapdragon?

Qualcomm processors are best known for their Snapdragon series. Main advantages of Snapdragon are in speed, low energy consumption, 40% improvement in graphics. 

Characteristics of Snapdragon:

    The most secure chipset – very little use of battery.
    Less heat compared to Intel or MediaTek.
    Adreno, a graphics plug produced by Qualcomm, is always part of this chipset.
    Benchmark tests often show that the performance of the Snapdragon chipset is better than the rest.



    Origin of MediaTek and Snapdragon

MediaTek is international semiconductor company founded in 1997 with headquarters in Hsinchu?, Taiwan. Snapdragon are processors produced by Qualcomm, which is also an international semiconductor and IT equipment producing company, with headquarters in San Diego, California, U.S. It was founded in 1985.

    Processor cores in MediaTek and Snapdragon

Both MediaTek and Snapdragon are multicore processors. 

    CPU and GPU in MediaTek and Snapdragon

Comparing MediaTek and Qualcomm performance, there is almost no difference in terms of CPU, but it’s clear that the graphics part is better done by the Adreno GPU installed in all Snapdragon SoCs. This is especially noticeable in the high end segment. The difference in GPU performance is significantly less noticeable in the mid-range and low-end segment. Qualcomm produces its graphics chips that are best engineered to work with the processor and other components.

    Battery life of MediaTek and Snapdragon

MediaTek chipsets are known to be high power consuming which results in shortened battery life. They are improving their processors to be more energy efficient but are still behind Snapdragon.

    Performance

MediaTek’s processors are solid performing. Their extra core processors enable intensive and heavy task performing and they are very good at multi-tasking. Snapdragon has even better performance in multi-tasking, handling heavy and intensive tasks and gaming.

    Heating

Snapdragon processors are generally less prone to heating compared to MediaTek.

    Cost of MediaTek and Snapdragon

MediaTek SOCs are often cheaper than similar Qualcomm solutions.