First impressions of the first "thermonuclear" tablet on the MediaTek MT8392 chipset
Recently, a blog post published on the differences between chipsets for smartphones and tablets. In most cases, these chipsets have the same characteristics “on paper”, but in reality the situation is much more interesting. The solutions for “smart phones” and “tablets” have serious differences in circuit design, in the complete set of drivers, and in the assembly of the Android operating system.
In the situation with chipsets for smartphones and tablets, we examined the example of MediaTek MT6592 and MT8392. MediaTek MT8392 - the world's first "real 8-core", focused on the use of tablets. And today we have on the "cutting table" - the first model in Russia on this chipset. (Oh sorry for the frequent use of the word "first", but how much is there.)
The bb-mobile brand positions its product as “the first thermonuclear tablet in Russia” and gave it the corresponding name - Topol ' (“Topol”). Apparently, this is a kind of transparent hint of the famous Russian nuclear weapons. Thus, it's time to move from the theory outlined in the previous post about processors to practice, assessing what specific advantages the new eight-core MediaTek MT8392 gives to the tablet user.
')
First, we list all the technical characteristics of bb-mobile Topol ':
Screen: 8 inches, 1280 x 800 pixels, IPS
Chipset: MediaTek MT8392 , 8 ARM Cortex-A7 cores, up to 1.7 GHz; graphics Mali450MP4
RAM: 2 GB
Built-in memory: 16 GB
Memory Cards: MicroSD up to 32 GB
Bluetooth: +
Wi-Fi: +
GPS: +
3G: + (one SIM card)
Battery: 4000 mAh
Main camera: 5.0 MP
Front camera: 2.0 MP
Operating system: Android 4.4.2 KitKat
Dimensions: 206 x 123 x 8.3 mm / 308 g
Body Material: Metal
bb-mobile Topol ' - the tablet is relatively inexpensive: it is estimated at 10-15 thousand (sorry for such approximate figures - you know what's going on with the dollar rate). More pleasant to know that he is well suited to the role of a gaming device. Of course, theoretically, you can generally play on any device running Android. The only question is how and what. So bb-mobile Topol 'on MT8392 is the first tablet with a price tag in the price range indicated above, which is supported by the overwhelming majority of modern 3D toys. And with the maximum graphics settings, if the option to select them in a particular game is provided.
Here are some screenshots of the games that I actually launched on bb-mobile Topol '. But for a start it is worth noting that MediaTek has long since — since 2013 — established a direct partnership with the French Gameloft. The latter specifically optimizes its individual titles for the Taiwanese manufacturer's chipsets. For example, Modern Combat 5 was modified specifically for MT6592 (smartphone version) and MT8392 (tablet version): deeper shadows were added, additional visual effects during explosions, and reflections of objects.
Of course, on bb-mobile Topol 'this toy was launched without any problems. As, however, many other games. Here is Asphalt 8:
Here is the Gangstar Vegas:
And here is Dark Meadow: The Pact. The situation with this toy is especially curious, since it was originally created for the nVidia Tegra chipsets and behaves very whimsically on devices with other hardware platforms. For example, on the Exynos version of the Samsung Galaxy S5, it does not start at all, as well as on the LG Nexus 5 with Qualcomm Snapdragon 800.
I played on Topol for almost half a day, and I can highlight the following points. The first is that the tablet showed a very good level of autonomy in the "game console" mode. For the first time, the battery with a capacity of 4,000 mAh was asked to charge about five hours after the pilot launch of Asphalt 8. The screen brightness was set to 80%, and all wireless modules were turned off. I think if you activate 3G or Wi-Fi, then we get about more than four hours of autonomy. This is a very good indicator: usually tablets with 4-core processors, which are not able to provide the same high performance and level of graphics in 3D games, work for a comparable time without recharging.
The second important point - bb-mobile Topol 'practically does not heat up. That is, of course, during the "sessions" of active 3D gaming, it becomes warm, but certainly not hot. Apparently, there are two reasons for this. The first one is the well-chosen material of the back panel: the metal (and the “back” of the Topol is made of just a thick but pleasant to the touch piece of metal) dissipates heat well.
The second reason is precisely in the features of the MediaTek MT8392 chipset. Like most MediaTek chipsets from 2013-2014, CorePilot technology is implemented in this model ( details ). Its essence is in the selection of the optimal configuration of the processor cores to perform a specific task. Roughly speaking, if for “smooth” gameplay it is necessary to activate only 3 (4, 5, 6 ...) cores out of 8, then the system will do just that. Plus, they will work at the lowest possible frequency, so that the toy goes without slowing down, and there was no heating of the case, and no extra energy was spent. That is why the "Topol" very decent indicators of autonomy.
For the order I will give a set of results in benchmarks. In AnTuTu bb-mobile Topol 'scores more than 30 thousand points - this is more than a decent result for a model for 10-15 thousand rubles. Usually tablets with such price tags show no more than 20 thousand "parrots", that is, a third less than the "Topol". Even products of top world brands.
I emphasize that a screen with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels helped to achieve such impressive results in the benchmarks of Topol. Yes, the resolution is not the maximum for a diagonal of 8 inches, but, given the fairly high quality of the IPS matrix used in the tablet, I personally have not found any reasons for particular disorders. The viewing angles are wide, the colors are natural, and the pixel size is not at all striking as much as I originally intended. Plus, the lower the resolution, the lower the load on both the hardware and the battery. I mean this: I’m sure that the MediaTek MT8392 models with Full HD screens (1920 x 1200 points) will soon appear on the market, and their performance and autonomy will be somewhat worse. (Worse, but not at all dramatically bad!)
As an output I will say the following. MediaTek MT8392 is more than a decent tablet platform that allows you to create low-cost and at the same time very fast devices. Six months ago, it was impossible to even dream of budget “pills” with such a powerful iron. Now they are quite real. The first of these was the "thermonuclear", as the developers of bb-mobile called it, "Topol". I do not argue: indeed, the device is worthy. It has a tightly-knit metal case, a high-quality IPS-screen, a 3G modem with the function of voice calls ... And, of course, a cold and fast “heart”. It is the latest to me personally that this model is interesting: it has long been looking for an inexpensive tablet that would absolutely not be annoyed by the brakes and would have a full set of wireless modules. And, it seems, in the face of "Topol" I found it.
There is every reason to believe that further - at the beginning of 2015 - a whole galaxy of similar models will appear on the market - with 3G and 4G modems, with HD and Full HD screens, different amounts of RAM and different price tags. One thing unites them: impressive performance for low-cost tablets, guaranteed by the “first tablet 8-core device” - MediaTek MT8392.
PS Once again, just in case: I did not indicate the exact price of the bb-mobile Topol 'tablet, as the prices for electronics are changing every day. Initially, this tablet was sold for 9999 rubles, but as the dollar grew, the manufacturer began to raise the price, and now the model costs as much as 14,600 rubles. To what level the prices for tablets in Russia will rise as a result, the author of this material cannot predict.
In the situation with chipsets for smartphones and tablets, we examined the example of MediaTek MT6592 and MT8392. MediaTek MT8392 - the world's first "real 8-core", focused on the use of tablets. And today we have on the "cutting table" - the first model in Russia on this chipset. (Oh sorry for the frequent use of the word "first", but how much is there.)
The bb-mobile brand positions its product as “the first thermonuclear tablet in Russia” and gave it the corresponding name - Topol ' (“Topol”). Apparently, this is a kind of transparent hint of the famous Russian nuclear weapons. Thus, it's time to move from the theory outlined in the previous post about processors to practice, assessing what specific advantages the new eight-core MediaTek MT8392 gives to the tablet user.
')
First, we list all the technical characteristics of bb-mobile Topol ':
Screen: 8 inches, 1280 x 800 pixels, IPS
Chipset: MediaTek MT8392 , 8 ARM Cortex-A7 cores, up to 1.7 GHz; graphics Mali450MP4
RAM: 2 GB
Built-in memory: 16 GB
Memory Cards: MicroSD up to 32 GB
Bluetooth: +
Wi-Fi: +
GPS: +
3G: + (one SIM card)
Battery: 4000 mAh
Main camera: 5.0 MP
Front camera: 2.0 MP
Operating system: Android 4.4.2 KitKat
Dimensions: 206 x 123 x 8.3 mm / 308 g
Body Material: Metal
bb-mobile Topol ' - the tablet is relatively inexpensive: it is estimated at 10-15 thousand (sorry for such approximate figures - you know what's going on with the dollar rate). More pleasant to know that he is well suited to the role of a gaming device. Of course, theoretically, you can generally play on any device running Android. The only question is how and what. So bb-mobile Topol 'on MT8392 is the first tablet with a price tag in the price range indicated above, which is supported by the overwhelming majority of modern 3D toys. And with the maximum graphics settings, if the option to select them in a particular game is provided.
Here are some screenshots of the games that I actually launched on bb-mobile Topol '. But for a start it is worth noting that MediaTek has long since — since 2013 — established a direct partnership with the French Gameloft. The latter specifically optimizes its individual titles for the Taiwanese manufacturer's chipsets. For example, Modern Combat 5 was modified specifically for MT6592 (smartphone version) and MT8392 (tablet version): deeper shadows were added, additional visual effects during explosions, and reflections of objects.
Of course, on bb-mobile Topol 'this toy was launched without any problems. As, however, many other games. Here is Asphalt 8:
Here is the Gangstar Vegas:
And here is Dark Meadow: The Pact. The situation with this toy is especially curious, since it was originally created for the nVidia Tegra chipsets and behaves very whimsically on devices with other hardware platforms. For example, on the Exynos version of the Samsung Galaxy S5, it does not start at all, as well as on the LG Nexus 5 with Qualcomm Snapdragon 800.
I played on Topol for almost half a day, and I can highlight the following points. The first is that the tablet showed a very good level of autonomy in the "game console" mode. For the first time, the battery with a capacity of 4,000 mAh was asked to charge about five hours after the pilot launch of Asphalt 8. The screen brightness was set to 80%, and all wireless modules were turned off. I think if you activate 3G or Wi-Fi, then we get about more than four hours of autonomy. This is a very good indicator: usually tablets with 4-core processors, which are not able to provide the same high performance and level of graphics in 3D games, work for a comparable time without recharging.
The second important point - bb-mobile Topol 'practically does not heat up. That is, of course, during the "sessions" of active 3D gaming, it becomes warm, but certainly not hot. Apparently, there are two reasons for this. The first one is the well-chosen material of the back panel: the metal (and the “back” of the Topol is made of just a thick but pleasant to the touch piece of metal) dissipates heat well.
The second reason is precisely in the features of the MediaTek MT8392 chipset. Like most MediaTek chipsets from 2013-2014, CorePilot technology is implemented in this model ( details ). Its essence is in the selection of the optimal configuration of the processor cores to perform a specific task. Roughly speaking, if for “smooth” gameplay it is necessary to activate only 3 (4, 5, 6 ...) cores out of 8, then the system will do just that. Plus, they will work at the lowest possible frequency, so that the toy goes without slowing down, and there was no heating of the case, and no extra energy was spent. That is why the "Topol" very decent indicators of autonomy.
For the order I will give a set of results in benchmarks. In AnTuTu bb-mobile Topol 'scores more than 30 thousand points - this is more than a decent result for a model for 10-15 thousand rubles. Usually tablets with such price tags show no more than 20 thousand "parrots", that is, a third less than the "Topol". Even products of top world brands.
I emphasize that a screen with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels helped to achieve such impressive results in the benchmarks of Topol. Yes, the resolution is not the maximum for a diagonal of 8 inches, but, given the fairly high quality of the IPS matrix used in the tablet, I personally have not found any reasons for particular disorders. The viewing angles are wide, the colors are natural, and the pixel size is not at all striking as much as I originally intended. Plus, the lower the resolution, the lower the load on both the hardware and the battery. I mean this: I’m sure that the MediaTek MT8392 models with Full HD screens (1920 x 1200 points) will soon appear on the market, and their performance and autonomy will be somewhat worse. (Worse, but not at all dramatically bad!)
As an output I will say the following. MediaTek MT8392 is more than a decent tablet platform that allows you to create low-cost and at the same time very fast devices. Six months ago, it was impossible to even dream of budget “pills” with such a powerful iron. Now they are quite real. The first of these was the "thermonuclear", as the developers of bb-mobile called it, "Topol". I do not argue: indeed, the device is worthy. It has a tightly-knit metal case, a high-quality IPS-screen, a 3G modem with the function of voice calls ... And, of course, a cold and fast “heart”. It is the latest to me personally that this model is interesting: it has long been looking for an inexpensive tablet that would absolutely not be annoyed by the brakes and would have a full set of wireless modules. And, it seems, in the face of "Topol" I found it.
There is every reason to believe that further - at the beginning of 2015 - a whole galaxy of similar models will appear on the market - with 3G and 4G modems, with HD and Full HD screens, different amounts of RAM and different price tags. One thing unites them: impressive performance for low-cost tablets, guaranteed by the “first tablet 8-core device” - MediaTek MT8392.
PS Once again, just in case: I did not indicate the exact price of the bb-mobile Topol 'tablet, as the prices for electronics are changing every day. Initially, this tablet was sold for 9999 rubles, but as the dollar grew, the manufacturer began to raise the price, and now the model costs as much as 14,600 rubles. To what level the prices for tablets in Russia will rise as a result, the author of this material cannot predict.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/364535/
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