[Newsflash] First True Octa-Core Smartphone Unveiled

This isn't any great news as such going by the names like MediaTek and UMI, but there certainly seems to be something going on in the manufacturing industry.

Everybody knows that Galaxy S4 was supposed to have an 8 core processor but is it really an octa-core ? True, it does have 8 cores, but do they all work together or is there some difference in what was present in the S4 compared to what MediaTek claims to build now ? Yes. This is about the computing architecture. A neat little explanation by engadget clears this up

engadget said:
The 5410's eight processing cores are set up in ARM's trademarked big.LITTLE architecture style: it has four energy-efficient Cortex-A7 cores for lighter tasks, along with four high-performance Cortex-A15 cores that are designed to kick in for duties that require more processing power. Jobs that tax the processor up to 1.2GHz will be taken on by the A7s, but the A15s will turn on (shutting off the A7 cores in the process) as soon as more power is needed. This structure is very similar to Tegra 3's "4-PLUS-1" Companion Core in concept, though you get four total cores, all of which are capable of operating as low as 200MHz.

In theory, having multiple cores dedicated to running basic tasks at lower clock speeds should make the device more power efficient. Branding the chip as "octa-core" is technically accurate, but a little misleading to users -- it may lead people to think they're getting significantly more power than on quad-core devices, but in reality, you'll only see four cores working at a time. Since your top performance will involve four Cortex-A15 cores, you'll still have the best processor you can currently get on a smartphone, but the idea that you're getting eight cores running at the same time doesn't hold true.
(Source)

Further Reading:ARM's Cortex A7: Bringing Cheaper Dual-Core & More Power Efficient High-End Devices

Anyways, the device mentioned here doesn't quite make a statement but China has a different market so, there.

GSMarena said:
All of UMI’s phones are intended for the Chinese market and that’s why you’ve probably never heard of the brand

MediaTek is a relatively young player so lets see what it has to offer, besides providing assistance to local handset makers like micromaxx, lava and the rest

GSMarena said:
There is no info on the pricing and availability yet, but the gadget is supposed to be very affordable, despite its fancy CPU

Whatever they do, that fluid like navigation is still missing in Android unless you know your way with it

Source