Is it really worth to buy MediaTek processor phones?

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Hi,

I bought my first Android phone,XOLO Q700 last year because it was cheap. Though phone did not give me any problem yet after one and half year, but does not have much custom ROM support. I was under impression that XOLO is not releasing kernel source. But after doing some research, I came to know that MediaTek do not share kernel source ( source Why Mediatek don't share source code, and why they should! - Gizchina.com | Gizchina.com and Petition Â· Kernel Source of XOLO Q700/Q700i Â· Change.org ). I also read few more articles like 6 things you should pay attention when buying a cheap phone . Xiaomi is going to launch Redmi Note in India later this month which has MediaTek processor (though they also have Snapdragon processor model also but I think in India they will release MediaTek model). I was thinking of buying Xiaomi Note. But now when I came to know problems with MediaTek not releaseing kernel source, I have apprehension to buy any MediaTek Processor phone. So my question is, is it really worth to buy MeidaTek processor phones?

_prabhat said:
Hi,

I bought my first Android phone,XOLO Q700 last year because it was cheap. Though phone did not give me any problem yet after one and half year, but does not have much custom ROM support. I was under impression that XOLO is not releasing kernel source. But after doing some research, I came to know that MediaTek do not share kernel source ( source Why Mediatek don't share source code, and why they should! - Gizchina.com | Gizchina.com and Petition Â· Kernel Source of XOLO Q700/Q700i Â· Change.org ). I also read few more articles like 6 things you should pay attention when buying a cheap phone . Xiaomi is going to launch Redmi Note in India later this month which has MediaTek processor (though they also have Snapdragon processor model also but I think in India they will release MediaTek model). I was thinking of buying Xiaomi Note. But now when I came to know problems with MediaTek not releaseing kernel source, I have apprehension to buy any MediaTek Processor phone. So my question is, is it really worth to buy MeidaTek processor phones?

Yes, MediaTek does not release kernel sources. I have read that Mediatek has bad developers and their kernel sources are ****, which is the reason for their inefficiency. But if the phone is cheap, you can forgo updates. Never buy an expensive phone based on MediaTek chipset.

BTW, Google's Android One phones run on Mediatek MT6582 SOC. So, it is possible that Mediatek will release their kernel sources for updates some time in the future...

AndroidFan said:
Never buy an expensive phone based on MediaTek chipset.

But iPhone 6 has Mediatek processors.

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AndroidFan said:
Yes, MediaTek does not release kernel sources. I have read that Mediatek has bad developers and their kernel sources are ****, which is the reason for their inefficiency. But if the phone is cheap, you can forgo updates. Never buy an expensive phone based on MediaTek chipset.

BTW, Google's Android One phones run on Mediatek MT6582 SOC. So, it is possible that Mediatek will release their kernel sources for updates some time in the future...

According to Why Mediatek don't share source code, and why they should! - Gizchina.com | Gizchina.com this article,

Mediatek will happily release the source code for their processors but at a price (which is against the GPL policies Android is distributed under). You can contact Mediatek now and pay for a license for your chip, but how many thousands of $ would they ask we don’t know, and the fact is it should be free.

So they will release kernel sources if company pays them or they have some business advantage in it. For Android one they may release kernel sources if Google has made agreement with them, otherwise it will be same old story, they won't release kernel sources.

If you want a phone with good custom ROM support stay away from exynos and mediatek. About huawei's new processor it is early to predict. Snapdragon is way to go

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^^ I agree. I wish I knew this last year. I think MediaTek doesn't have control over source of Android. But they do not release device drivers of their SoC under GPL. So the driver sources are not released for general public. Cheap processors with cheap business policies completely against OpenSource on which Android is based. So it is misleading for the people who thinks that everything in Android phone is OpenSource. Android OS may be OpenSource but the device drivers in the phone may not be OpenSource if it is CHEAP MediaTek.

DeSmOnD dAvId said:
But iPhone 6 has Mediatek processors.

iPhone does not need custom ROM support.

M

DeSmOnD dAvId said:
But iPhone 6 has Mediatek processors.

iphone don't have mediatek processor processor is developed by them only.

amjath said:
If you want a phone with good custom ROM support stay away from exynos and mediatek. About huawei's new processor it is early to predict. Snapdragon is way to go

Custom rom are not always great they are buggy too.

DeSmOnD dAvId said:
But iPhone 6 has Mediatek processors.

What.It doesnt have mtk

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Under 10k it's fine.But now with Redmi 1s,Zenfone series it really doesn't make sense to buy a mtk device anymore

M

_prabhat said:
^^ I agree. I wish I knew this last year. I think MediaTek doesn't have control over source of Android. But they do not release device drivers of their SoC under GPL. So the driver sources are not released for general public. Cheap processors with cheap business policies completely against OpenSource on which Android is based. So it is misleading for the people who thinks that everything in Android phone is OpenSource. Android OS may be OpenSource but the device drivers in the phone may not be OpenSource if it is CHEAP MediaTek.

I will ask you one question when did you bought your Xolo Q700 and for how much?I bet at that time no other good alternatives are available.Qualcomm release their Snapdragon 200 recently before that there was not any low end chip from qualcomm and phone with qualcomm cost 15k upwards.

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theserpent said:
What.It doesnt have mtk

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Under 10k it's fine.But now with Redmi 1s,Zenfone series it really doesn't make sense to buy a mtk device anymore

Calm down buddy.Intel even has app compatibility problem some apps simply don't run.

Well if you plan to play around with roms and all you can forget about mediatek except for android one, for which I think they have released the sources already

The newer gen mediatek is catching up with other soc in terms of performance though, check out the meizu mx4, gorgeous phone, handling 4k videos is apiece of cake for it (playback)
The Lenovo vibe z2 is going to be another phone based on the same soc
They seem to have fixed most of the issues that plagued their previous iteirations

theserpent said:
What.It doesnt have mtk

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Under 10k it's fine.But now with Redmi 1s,Zenfone series it really doesn't make sense to buy a mtk device anymore

Ok. Just looked it up. It's TSMC, not Mediatek. I got confused.

No.

For Android phones stick to SD version if possible.

What's SD?

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^^ Snapdragon

Here is one more discusssion Mediatek requires a Linux Kernel Source License Fee : Android

Have You Paid Your Linux Kernel Source License Fee? - XDA Forums

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Got reply from XOLO who says we are legally bound with our chipset partner, this is why we can not release sources. So won't buy MediaTek phones in future even though they are cheap.

Danish Pandey said:
That is a very interesting question which is quite in favor of MediaTek atleast in 2018. The chipset manufacturer in 2018 has launched the Helio P 60, which came along with Oppo F7 recently. The AI backed perfect amalgamation of innovation and cost effect price make both the chipset and the phone more desirable.

After reading the sentence in bold, I just puked. AI is just a buzzword OEMs are throwing at customers (like PC component makers are using VR-Ready). F7 is an overpriced piece of crap.

PS: Don't go on bumping every dead mediatek related thread on the forum.

Ramandeep Singh said:
hahahah, when you see VR ready, you should know how to use it as in the case of an AI powered phone. It is all on the use case.

There is no "AI powered" phone to begin with.

Danish Pandey said:
That is a very interesting question which is quite in favor of MediaTek atleast in 2018. The chipset manufacturer in 2018 has launched the Helio P 60, which came along with Oppo F7 recently. The AI backed perfect amalgamation of innovation and cost effect price make both the chipset and the phone more desirable.

How about No.

Its not worth to buy Mediatek phones, and those who buy it don't have any idea about Rooting, Custom ROM, kernel source etc.

Zangetsu said:
Its not worth to buy Mediatek phones, and those who buy it don't have any idea about Rooting, Custom ROM, kernel source etc.

They also don't either have common sense or are brainwashed by forced marketing crap.

I don't know what's wrong with MediaTek processor. Can someone enlighten me in simple words ?

meetdilip said:
I don't know what's wrong with MediaTek processor. Can someone enlighten me in simple words ?

Phones in India which are launched with low end mediatek SoCs are priced absurdly high compared to those having Snapdragon SoCs. These phones generally have cancer-worthy stock UI and there is zero to none developer support for them. Buyers are then at the mercy of the OEM for updates and security patches which never get released in time if at all.

Thanks. What I heard was that they are less powerful than Qualcomm. Any truth in that ?

meetdilip said:
Thanks. What I heard was that they are less powerful than Qualcomm. Any truth in that ?

To some extent yes. Their flagship models never make it to India and the low end ones barely match previous generation Qualcomm SoCs performance. It's like AMD GPUs trying to catch up with nvidia GPUs for performance and efficiency.

Unless they release a dual volte 4g always ON on both Sims , I guess people will not be inticed to buy mediatek .
They have lost at that to , as I read the Redmi note 5 pro in China with Qualcomm has dual volte and always on 4g on both Sims .
Correct me if I am wrong please .
Cheers !

Sent from my MI MAX 2 using Tapatalk

ankushv said:
Unless they release a dual volte 4g always ON on both Sims , I guess people will not be inticed to buy mediatek .
They have lost at that to , as I read the Redmi note 5 pro in China with Qualcomm has dual volte and always on 4g on both Sims .
Correct me if I am wrong please .
Cheers !

Sent from my MI MAX 2 using Tapatalk

wow that seems like an epic feature, how will it affect battery

I read on the Mi forums they plan to bring the dual volte feature to the indian Redmi note 5 pro too .
But the indian variant is slightly different from it's Chinese counterpart in terms of the camera .
So let's see if it can work here .
SD 660 seems to support dual volte.
I'll believe it when I actually see it as the information on the web is still unverified .
Regards to battery life we have to see .
This could be good in my case as I have Airtel and Vodafone in Mumbai .
Both are Volte here . I use them in my Mi5 and Mi Max 2 .

Sent from my HM NOTE 1LTE using Tapatalk

I won't hold my breath for Xiaomi to come up with that on note 5 pro, they might launch it with some other phone and state it a feature and then enable this feature to older devices.

S

It is worthty as MTK Phones maker mostly didnt release update for its phone and mediatek itself didnt release source for its SoC.

If a p60 helio and a Sd 636 is similarly priced , I'd go for the Sd 636 .

Sent from my GT-I9500 using Tapatalk

G

This year is a game changer for Mediatek

Helios P60 is a powerful performer equal to SD 660 in cpu and this time they have also got the GPU right ..

Plus it is very power efficient as well.. Check Oppo f7 gsmarena battery tests

And project treble has solved their major weakness

An Obscure MediaTek Phone with no Kernel Source can run AOSP Android Oreo thanks to Project Treble

The recently launched oppo realme 1 is an ultra bang for buck performer for 9k ..

Also dual 4g volte + AI stuff ..

Finally some true competition , thanks to treble and mediatek

gta5 said:
This year is a game changer for Mediatek

Helios P60 is a powerful performer equal to SD 660 in cpu and this time they have also got the GPU right ..

Plus it is very power efficient as well.. Check Oppo f7 gsmarena battery tests

And project treble has solved their major weakness

An Obscure MediaTek Phone with no Kernel Source can run AOSP Android Oreo thanks to Project Treble

The recently launched oppo realme 1 is an ultra bang for buck performer for 9k ..

Also dual 4g volte + AI stuff ..

Finally some true competition , thanks to treble and mediatek

They are stupid to launch a phone with <4000 mAh battery in this budget. Also, 64 GB should've been on the base model instead of 32 GB. For non-techie people (easily >90% of population), treble support is as big of a jargon as SoC is.

Google should mandate that OEMs can't mutilate the OS anyway and are just allowed to add functionality (like a skin) on top of it. That'll be the end of all crap iOS wannabe UIs.

G

SaiyanGoku said:
They are stupid to launch a phone with <4000 mAh battery in this budget. Also, 64 GB should've been on the base

Google should mandate that OEMs can't mutilate the OS anyway and are just allowed to add functionality (like a skin) on top of it. That'll be the end of all crap iOS wannabe UIs.

Looking at battery size alone can be misleading

Oppo f7 scores 91h endurance rating with same battery and chipset .. Screen is slightly bigger but LTPS variety on f7

So battery life should be good .. And my guess is not that far behind note 5 pro

Bigger battery would have increased the price

For non-techie people (easily >90% of population), treble support is as big of a jargon as SoC is.

That is true for offline market but
Online market is complete opposite in budget and mid range , it is like 80% semi- techie population , that knows about soc , watches all YouTube reviews etc .. Look at the amount of views/subscribers popular Indian tech channels are generating

This is why xiaomi , honor , Asus max m1 phones have been so successful without much advertising by giving bang for buck hardware at low prices and getting rave youtube reviews

Non techie people mostly buy Samsung , vivo , oppo( except this realme one ) etc

gta5 said:
Looking at battery size alone can be misleading

Oppo f7 scores 91h endurance rating with same battery and chipset .. Screen is slightly bigger but LTPS variety on f7

So battery life should be good .. And my guess is not that far behind note 5 pro

Bigger battery would have increased the price

That is true for offline market but
Online market is complete opposite in budget and mid range , it is like 80% semi- techie population , that knows about soc , watches all YouTube reviews etc .. Look at the amount of views/subscribers popular Indian tech channels are generating

This is why xiaomi , honor , Asus max m1 phones have been so successful without much advertising by giving bang for buck hardware at low prices and getting rave youtube reviews

Non techie people mostly buy Samsung , vivo , oppo( except this realme one ) etc

It isn't just the cut down battery, they removed finger print scanner as well. Trying to copy crap from Apple is going way too far now.

G

Yeah that is a big disadvantage of this phone ..

M

MediaTek is good for people who don't want to flash custom ROMs, previously different custom ROMs were unique and some of them were very stable just like stock ROMs but now most of them are build on same device tree so if device tree is buggy then all ROMs are buggy.
2nd thing I don't like about custom ROMs are Camera they can't capture good photos like stock ROMs
lastly there is no build with stable status every build is like beta builds

Currently, Only Paranoid, Lineage and some AOSP ROMs comes with unique features are stable. These are the reason why I left custom ROM community

M

But offtopic Does Oreo has bad battery life than Marshmallow?

A

No, Oreo is generally better for battery life than Marshmallow.

The thread has a wrong premise. MediaTek does not target the high end, they target mid-range mostly.

Between 10K and 26K, you can find good mediatek phones. Above this range, MTK loses value very quickly.

Performance wise, Qualcomm generally ends up having the better GPU at the higher mid range, for e.g. SD 636/660 vs. Helio P60, GPU wise it's a win for Snapdragon.

But in lower end, Helio P20/P22/P25 is generally more than a match for the SD 625/626/450/630 variants, even GPU wise.

MediaTek phones generally come with better cameras at the lower end (because, developers do not want to put much effort into programming DSP for a low end phone, and MTK has dedicated IP cores for camera and image processing - while Snapdragon has a flexible and highly programmable DSP called Hexagon, complemented by an Image Processor named Spectra). This means that "without much effort" and using the same hardware, the Mediatek phone will generally click better pics.

Mediatek SOCs also have Wolfson/Cirrus Logic IP to handle the audio parts - though not as good as dedicated DAC. Many Snapdragon phones have dedicated high quality DAC and many don't - but Qualcomm's stock one is a bit worse than MTK.

Such reasons give a lot of encouragement to device developers to use Mediatek for low end devices. Qualcomm has tried to fix this with SD 439 and SD 450, but IMHO still lagging. Mediatek was also first to market with Dual 4G VoLTE, which Qualcomm missed (though now there is parity).

For example, at the lower mid range, Helio A22, P23 support Dual 4G VoLTE, but Snapdragon 625/450 do not.

The device makers feel updates and custom ROMs will not be a big deal for lower end phone users, and to some extent they are right. Mediatek is trying to remedy that with a GMS Express program where they will make a regularly updated stock AOSP ROM available for a particular SOC for all the device OEMs....it should at least ensure timely security patches. I am seeing a few vendors become timely on security patch updates with MTK SOCs now.