Transsion Holdings’ Tecno Mobile and Infinix Mobility are among the most popular smartphone brands in Kenya right now.
Some of the major things that attract so many people, especially the youth, to the two brands include the number of features, raw power and camera quality the companies give the phones, yet price them at very affordable price tags, some even below Ksh 5,000.
While both Tecno and Infinix do a great job in the entry-level market, they also have a number of phones that target the high-end market, although technically, this is the midrange market. These phones, the latest of them being the Tecno Phantom 6, Phantom 6 Plus, Infinix Zero 4 and Zero 4 Plus, have quite an amazing hardware specs sheet, including great cameras and solid battery life and are currently priced at under Ksh 30,000.
Now, it appears that the upcoming Tecno and Infinix phones are about to get even more powerful. MediaTek has just unveiled two new processors – Helio P23 and Helio P30. These are new members of the Helio P series usually found on the “high-end” Phantom and Zero series. The Phantom 6, for instance, is powered by Helio P10 and while it would be natural to expect a Helio P20 to succeed the P10 when the Phantom 7 comes in, the phone has previously appeared in benchmarks with Helio P25 on board.
We’ve also seen the alleged Infinix Zero 5 pop up in benchmarks with the same Helio P25 chipset, but unlike the Tecno phone, the former had a massive 6GB RAM. Apparently, this is a feature you might want to start getting used to seeing on Infinix and Tecno phones starting this year onwards. According to MediaTek, not only the Helio P25, but also the Helio P23 and Helio P30 can handle RAM modules of up to 6GB.
This is an improvement from the previous Helio P10, which can support a maximum of 4GB RAM, the same amount the upcoming Tecno Phantom 7 has been benchmarked with, up from 3GB RAM used on the Phantom 6. Other than the possibilities of Tecno and Infinix phones coming with bigger RAM, the MediaTek Helio P23 and Helio P30 processors will allow these OEMs to include much better cameras.
The company is bringing the Camera Control Unit (CCU) used in the Helio X series, the top-tier processors from MediaTek, to the Helio P23 and Helio P30. The role of the CCU is to speed up focal and exposure correction, promising great photos even when in a moving car.
Leaked images of the Tecno Phantom 7 (Phantom 7 Plus) have suggested that the phone will sport a dual-lens camera on the back. The Helio P25 that is expected to power the Phantom 7 supports a maximum of 13MP+13MP dual camera or a single 24MP camera on the back, same as the Helio P23. The P30, on the other hand, takes this to the next level by supporting a 16MP+16MP dual camera or a 25MP single camera. OEMs can opt for RGB + monochrome or wide-angle + telephoto lens configurations.
With these two processors, Infinix Mobility and Tecno Mobile are welcome to use Infinity Display screens with support for Full HD+ resolutions of 2160 x 1080 pixels. We’ve seen this type of screens before on Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy Note 8 as well as LG G6 and LG V30, but we cannot guarantee the two Transsion Holdings’ entities will take this direction with their future smartphone designs.
Basically, all Tecno and Infinix phones are dual SIM. If you make use of both, you’ve probably noticed that you can’t have 4G connectivity on both SIM cards. But with the new MediaTek Helio P23 and Helio P30, both SIM cards will have 4G connectivity at the same time. They’ll also support voice and video calling over LTE on both SIM cards.
Note that none of Tecno or Infinix has confirmed that they’ll be using these chipsets on their phones, but this is just an educated guess based on the duo’s track record in the smartphone business. The Helio P23 will be available for use in Q4 while the P30 will be limited to the Chinese market, at least for now.
Would you like the next Infinix and Tecno phones to support up to 6GB RAM and dual cameras? Let us know in your comments below.
