If you have been wondering about the exact optimisations these new Android Go Phones have to run smoothly on a 1GB RAM phone, we have you covered.
In its mission to acquire the next billion users, Google announced the Android Oreo (Go Edition) operating system for low-end and entry-level devices. The aim was to get the massive user base of feature phones to transition to affordable 4G-enabled smartphones. The Android Go OS is essentially meant for phones running very basic hardware. We have already seen instances of it in the form of the Nokia 1, the Lava Z51, Micromax Bharat Go and more getting added to the roster every few months. All these phones have upto 1GB RAM and 8GB storage, which means these don't even qualify for entry-level smartphones. Yet, they can handle the Android OS without much of a hitch (as far as what we’ve seen), running most of the apps and services. At the core of its smooth operations is of course the Android Go operating system and the suite of ‘Go’ apps which are the same Google apps optimised for Android Go devices. But while Android Go takes care of the software-level optimisations, the heart of the device that makes it all possible is powered by MediaTek’s chipsets that have been tuned to allow for the slick user experience.
Last year, MediaTek signed a partnership with Google to be the SoC provider for phones powered by Android Oreo (Go Edition). The Taiwanese chipset designer said it embarked on a mission, “after a deep collaboration with Google”, to develop MediaTek’s MT6739, MT6737, and MT6580 SoCs. These chipsets have board support packages to run Android Oreo (Go Edition). But what exactly are these optimisations?
Google has listed the kind of optimisations it has done to the OS in good detail. It’s suite of first-party apps that take up less space, the minimal animations, and other features all make the OS well suited for devices with less than 1GB of RAM. MediaTek, which loves to operate behind the scenes didn’t publicly disclose what makes its chipsets so well-oiled to run on low-power hardware. So when we got a chance to sit down with MediaTek’s executives at the sidelines of Computex 2018 in Taiwan, we had to ask.
The answer was simple. As T.L Lee, MediaTek’s General Manager of Wireless Communications told us, chipsets like the MT6739, MT6737 and the MT6580 are especially designed to support phones with less than 1GB RAM. A phone with 512MB of RAM will cripple down while handling a full-fledged version of Android. But MediaTek’s chipsets make it possible thanks to its efficient memory management system. It’s tuned to always keep a certain amount of memory free all the time so that the phone does not freeze even if a number of apps are running in the background.
The trade-off here is that you can’t keep a gazillion apps open in the background as the chipset will close older apps when you open new ones so that the buffer amount of memory is always maintained. But then again, Android Oreo (Go Edition) phones are meant for users who are migrating from a feature phone to a smartphone for the first time. The phone is essentially a gateway to the internet for them. And to that end, the MediaTek chipsets optimised for Android Go have a 4G modem that can run two 4G SIM cards at once (dual 4G standby), along with support for dual VoLTE.
The chipsets also support the latest in-vogue features like the taller 18:9 displays and dual cameras, but that’s only when the manufacturer wants to use it. The MediaTek chipsets are manufactured in such a way that it reduces the Bill of Materials (BOM) cost so that phone makers can offer the phone at a price close to that of feature phones.
However, MediaTek was also keen to inform us that the price of Android Oreo (Go Edition) phones will never be as low as that of a feature phone. The components used just won’t allow it. According to MediaTek which offers smartphones vendors the reference designs and chipsets to make a smartphone, around 40 percent of the cost in making one comes from the display, while the chipset takes up another 30 percent. Feature phones can get away with giving a tiny display with no touch capabilities. Android phones requires the ability of touchscreens which is one of the major reasons for the mismatch in pricing. Furthermore, OEMs that are making smartphones for the feature phone market know how lucrative the market is, so the profit margins are also kept a little higher. Hence, we have only seen phones running on Android Oreo (Go Edition) priced around Rs 3,500 to Rs 5,000.
Yet, despite the tendency of costs to go higher than expected, using a MediaTek chipset saves a lot of money for manufacturers. For one, it does not have indulge in its own R&D and compliance testing as MediaTek offers all that in their turnkey reference designs. Moreover, MediaTek’s chipsets are anyway priced much lesser than its competitors like Qualcomm. You may have noticed how a smartphone rocking similar hardware but powered by a Snapdragon chipset is priced more than a phone powered by MediaTek’s SoC, also with similar specs.
MediaTek’s tirades to democratise the smartphone experience that a premium user gets for more affordable phones have been commendable. It has consitently managed to trickle down features seen in premium phones down to phones in the budget range. This include everything from 4G connectivity, to 18:9 displays to dual cameras and more. In fact, it’s Helio P60 that’s used on a Rs 9,999-priced Realme 1 has a dedicated APU for AI-centric tasks. Google’s choice of chipset in this case comes as no surprise as MediaTek caters to the segment of entry-level and mid-range phones which happens to be the highest selling category of phones worldwide, as more and more of the world’s population ditch their trusty old feature phones to embark on the journey of a smartphone.
MediaTek sponsored the author’s travel and stay for Computex 2018 in Taiwan
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Subhrojit Mallick
Eats smartphones for breakfast. View Full Profile
