Although MediaTek powers the lion’s share of budget Android smartphones in the US, the company has yet to make a dent in the premium segment. In fact, most high-end Android flagships launched in the country are backed by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chipsets. The scenery may soon change as the Taiwanese semiconductor company is reportedly bringing a premium MediaTek smartphone to the US soon.
MediaTek’s premium Android smartphone could launch later this year
MediaTek powers a host of Android smartphones, and the company’s SoCs can be found on budget phones like the OnePlus Nord N20 and the Moto G Power 2024. Having said that, premium smartphones usually employ Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors. The same is evident if you look at the current crop of flagships, namely the Galaxy S24 series, as well as the OnePlus 12, all of which utilize the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 platform.
That’s not to say that MediaTek’s flagship SoC is not up to snuff. In fact, when we reviewed the MediaTek Dimensity 9300-powered Vivo X100 Pro, we were quite impressed with its performance chops. To give you a better picture, the SoC outputted 2,159 and 7,189 points in the GeekBench 6 test. The scores are quite similar to competing flagships powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC.
MediaTek’s SoCs are getting better and better
Needless to say, MediaTek’s flagship SoCs can hold their own. Unfortunately, we’ve only seen one high-end MediaTek-powered device in the country, and that being the OnePlus Pad. However, the company confirmed it will bring its high-end SoCs to a device at an ongoing conference. The flagships launched overseas, which use a premium MediaTek processor, cost less than their Qualcomm counterparts. As such, the US market could have a capable flagship-killer on its hands soon.
It can be inferred that the brand will partner with OnePlus to debut its high-end SoC, given their past collaborations. With that said, would you buy a premium MediaTek-powered smartphone in the US over a Qualcomm Snapdragon flagship? What would you project the price of said flagship? Let us know in the comments below.
