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We used to call up having 2 CPU cores in a smartphone was really impressive, just that's nothing compared to what mobile hardware engineers are cranking out these days. Octa-core CPUs are commonplace, only MediaTek is continuing its push with a deca-core processor in the latest phone from Meizu. The Meizu PRO 6 is the first phone to transport with the MediaTek Helio X25, packing ten ARM CPU cores in 3 different groups. Sure, it sounds impressive, just it is actually going to do anyone whatever good?

Meizu is a Chinese electronics maker that has gained footing in recent years by offering midrange and high-finish Android devices for competitive prices. The new Meizu PRO six is one of the most powerful phones the visitor has e'er made on paper. It has a 5.two-inch 1080p Super AMOLED force per unit area-sensitive touchscreen, 4GB of RAM, and a 21MP Sony photographic camera sensor. What everyone is interested in is the new MediaTek Helio X25 organisation-on-a-chip (SoC) with the 10-core CPU.

This isn't the kickoff fourth dimension MediaTek has offered a 10-core CPU in one of its chips. The Helio X20 had the same core configuration, but this version is clocked ever higher. There are three CPU clusters in the Helio X25. The nearly powerful is the pair of ARM Cortex-A72 CPUs clocked at 2.5GHz. These are the ones that fire upward when you're pushing the phone. The side by side step down are the four Cortex-A53 CPUs clocked at ii.0GHz. Finally, there's another cluster of Cortex-A53 CPUs clocked at just 1.4GHz. The S25 also has a slightly faster Mali GPU than MediaTek used in the past.

Helio-X25-Mediatek-deca-core

MediaTek argues that a ten-core CPU is more efficient because it can split workloads across the clusters where it makes the nearly sense. The power-hungry A72s tin can snooze while the center and lower tier clusters have care of background tasks. You can certainly generate data in a laboratory setting that a 10-cadre, tri-cluster CPU saves power compared to an octa-cadre with just ii clusters, but the problem is app support. Most tertiary-party apps aren't fifty-fifty configured to take reward of eight cores, allow alone ten of them. Increasing the clock speed also means more oestrus, and that limits how many cores can run at a time. As a upshot, processes finish upwards bouncing back and forth between clusters because they can't all run at the same fourth dimension. Chore scheduling gets more complicated and inefficient at that point.

We've seen fourth dimension and time once more that there's only a marginal divergence in operation one time you get past four cores. The optimization of the software plays a much larger role than the number of CPU cores. And then, why push a 10-core CPU in the first place? It'due south mainly marketing, and the number of CPU cores is a huge selling point in the Chinese smartphone market. The more cores, the ameliorate it sells.

The Meizu PRO six might finish up being a neat phone for the people who purchase it, merely it won't be because it has ten CPU cores.