MediaTek announces gaming-focused Helio G85 chipset for budget phones

Mediatek Helio G85
Mediatek Helio G85 (Image credit: MediaTek)

What you need to know

  • MediaTek Helio G85 is a new gaming-focused mobile chipset for budget phones.
  • It is similar to the Helio G80 in most areas but packs a slightly faster GPU.
  • The first phone to feature the Helio G85 chipset is the Redmi Note 9, which was announced last week.

Earlier this year, MediaTek unveiled two new mobile chipsets for budget gaming phones – Helio G70 and Helio G80. The Taiwanese chipmaker today introduced another new budget gaming chipset, called the Helio G85.

The latest addition to the company's gaming chipset series comes with a 1 GHz ARM Mali-G52 GPU and enhancements to the HyperEngine Game technology to provide a great gaming experience. Just like the Helio G80, the new Helio G85 uses two high-performance ARM Cortex-A75 cores operating at 2GHz, paired with six Cortex-A55 cores running at 1.8 GHz. The chipset is built using a 12nm process and boasts a "Resource Management Engine" that intelligently manages the CPU, GPU, and memory to extend battery life and ensure smooth performance.

Dr. Yenchi Lee, Assistant General Manager of MediaTek's wireless business unit, said in a statement:

MediaTek is expanding our Helio G family to give device makers more options in designing smartphones that deliver an elite gaming experience. The Helio G85 delivers a combination of impressive performance, minimal power consumption and a range of other gaming enhancements so users can enjoy fast and smooth gameplay.

With connectivity enhancements made to MediaTek's HyperEngine Game technology, the Helio G85 can ensure a lag-free connection and allow users to defer calls while playing a game, without dropping the data connection. The chipset also offers integrated voice wake-up (VoW) capabilities, highly accurate location information with inertial navigation, dual 4G SIM capabilities, Bluetooth 5.0, and support for 16MP + 16MP or single 48MP camera sensors.

The first phone to feature the MediaTek Helio G80 chipset is the Redmi Note 9, which made its global debut last week. We expect a few more affordable phones featuring the Helio G85 chipset to be announced in the coming weeks.

Hey Google — how about making a phone with a MediaTek processor for a change?

Babu Mohan
News Writer