- Kyle Chua
MWC 2022 Roundup: New Dimensity Silicon, Earbuds With Temperature Monitoring, HTC Vive's Metaverse
With MWC 2022 having wrapped up last week, here are some announcements that we found most interesting.
MediaTek’s New Dimensity Chipsets
MediaTek is expanding its Dimensity line beyond budget-friendly chipsets, announcing at MWC 2022 that it’s launching two higher-end offerings, namely the Dimensity 8000 and 8100. The company said that the two chipsets are built on the 5nm process and feature ARM Cortex-A78 cores, four Cortex-A55 cores and a Mali G610 GPU.
With regards to how they perform, the 8100, in particular, is said to have outperformed Qualcomm's old flagship Snapdragon 888 in some benchmarks. This seems to hint that mid-rangers this year could get a significant boost in power, with the likes of Xiaomi and Oppo already having smartphones housing these chipsets in the pipeline.
Both chipsets also support a single 200MP camera and 4K 60 FPS video recording. They also include Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, Bluetooth LE and sub-6Ghz 5G connectivity.
Oppo Wins Award For Find N
Oppo capped off what has been an eventful MWC with an award. The company’s first foldable smartphone, which was launched towards the end of last year, bagged the Disruptive Device Innovation Award at the 2022 Global Mobile (GLOMO) Awards. The flagship device was recognised for its distinctive hinge mechanism and practical form factor.
“This is a huge recognition of OPPO’s products and technology not only from our peers in the industry but also end-users themselves,” said Billy Zhang, Oppo Vice President of Overseas Sales and Service. “Following four years of R&D and six iterations, we are delighted to see that OPPO Find N is finally making foldable devices suitable for everyday people, rather than devices purely for tech enthusiasts.”
The Find N, Find X5 series and the OnePlus 10 Pro were prominently displayed at the show. Earlier this week, Oppo also announced its latest breakthroughs in fast-charging technology, showcasing the new 150W and 240W SuperVOOC flash charge solution. The 150W solution can fully charge a 4,500 mAh battery in just 15 minutes and is expected to appear in Oppo’s flagships this year. The 240W, meanwhile, can fully charge the same battery in about nine minutes.
Honor’s Temperature Monitoring Earbuds
Honor wants to give you the ability to track your body temperature as you listen to your favourite tunes. The former Huawei sub-brand’s new Earbuds 3 Pro, which was unveiled at the trade event, includes a built-in temperature monitoring feature. While wearing the earbuds, you can tap them to check your temperature. They also alert you for abnormal readings. The only catch is that, as of right now, the device has yet to receive regulatory approvals, meaning there’s no certainty that it could work in a medical setting.
The Earbuds 3 Pro also features adaptive active noise cancellation (ANC), an 11mm dynamic driver with upgraded sound quality and bass as well as 24 hours of battery life. No other details were shared, except that it will be priced at €199 once it releases.
TCL 30 Series
TCL wants to continue to make a name for itself in the smartphone market, launching five new handsets at MWC 2022 under the TCL 30 series. The standard TCL 30, the 30+ and the 30 5G all pack a fairly sizable 6.7-inch AMOLED display and triple-camera setups. But only the TCL 30 5G – from its name – supports 5G network connections. The TCL 30 SE and 30 E, meanwhile, sport smaller 6.52-inch displays and don’t include a macro sensor.
Next-Gen Chip Packaging and Stacking Tech
While not directly MWC 2022-related, Nikkei Asia reports that Intel, TSMC and Samsung are collaborating to develop new chip packaging and stacking technologies. Together with a few other companies, the consortium looks to establish a single chip packaging standard that will power the next generation of devices.
What does this mean? Well, the three aforementioned chipmakers are industry leaders. So if they’re joining forces, you can bet that this is important.
See, the way semiconductors become more and more powerful each generation is through the process of adding transistors onto the chip. In general, the more transistors, the more powerful a chip is. However, space on a chip is limited, which means manufacturers can’t just keep doubling the number of transistors for each generation. Herein lies the problem that the consortium looks to solve – they want to find a better way to combine different types of chips – or chiplets, as they’re sometimes called – in one package. This will allow them to continue to up the processing power of the chips that are put out each year.
Other companies participating in the consortium include Meta, Google Cloud, AMD, Qualcomm, Arm and Microsoft, to name a few.
HTC Viverse
HTC also wants a piece of the metaverse pie, announcing at the event its ambition to create "a universe of new experiences" powered by its Vive virtual reality (VR) system. Called the Viverse, the platform is described as an open ecosystem where you can freely explore interconnected worlds and engage in different activities.
There’s what the company is calling the Museum of Other Realities, for example, a space that houses interactive art for you to enjoy with other users. There’s also Vive Sync, a VR-based all-in-one meeting and collaboration solution. These are just a couple of examples of what HTC demonstrated for the attendees of MWC 2022. The company says that more spaces are expected to be integrated as more partners are onboarded.
HTC additionally noted that Viverse is built on open standards like WebXR, enabling developers to easily build experiences around it. It’s relatively accessible for users as well, given how you can enter the platform via a browser using a smartphone or the company’s new VR glasses, the Vive Flow, among other devices.
"Viverse provides seamless experiences, reachable on any device, anywhere, and is enabled by the virtual and augmented reality, high-speed connectivity, AI, and blockchain technologies that HTC has invested in for several years," said Cher Wang, HTC Chairwoman.