Mediatek taking ‘a bit of a break’ from flagship chips [Exclusive]

When it comes to high-end smartphone processors, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835, Apple’s A11, Samsung’s Exynos 8895, Huawei’s Kirin 970 and Mediatek’s Helio X30 are considered the top dogs.

But if any processor failed to live up to expectations, it was Mediatek‘s chip. Far from seeing a ton of volume, the decacore Helio X30 only saw buy-in from Meizu (Pro 7 Plus) and Elephone (X8 Lite), coming nowhere near the success of the Helio X20 and rival brands.

Now, Mediatek’s general manager for international sales, Finbarr Moynihan, told Gearburn that the company is taking a break of sorts from flagship chips to focus on “new premium” devices. Moynihan was asked about the Helio X30 and its poor reception compared to previous chips.

“…The chipset and the modem has got to be able to meet the high-end modem requirements for US, European, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, African, Indian carriers, right? So it tends to need the latest and greatest modem specs. The X30 was probably not at that level… in terms of all of the global requirements, but we knew that, right?” Moynihan explains.

Mediatek’s Finbarr Moynihan says the company’s top-end chips are on a hiatus of sorts

The Mediatek representative adds that many Chinese brands were releasing mid-range devices — not a great fit for the Helio X30.

“So probably the X30 was too high for some of that [the cheaper phones – ed] and didn’t deliver on some of the global modem stuff to make it applicable in that space. So that’s why we’ve kind of retrenched a little bit and focused more on… the Helio P, the new premium.”

Does that mean Mediatek is giving up on the flagship category then? We posed this question to the representative.

“What I would say is that probably at the highest end, at this point we’re taking a bit of a break,” Moynihan answered. So no Helio X40 or X35 or anything like that in 2018?

“I think what you’ll see though is you’ll see us continue to push up from where we are today. How we brand it, to be honest, we haven’t decided. But probably… aiming for the bleeding edge of this stuff (sic), probably not in the next year or two,” the executive answered.

Featured image: Meizu’s Mediatek-powered Pro 7 and Pro 7 Plus via Mediatek Twitter account