Sony, HTC to bring low cost quad core phones

Samsung became the first big brand to launch low cost quad core phone with Galaxy Win, and now Sony and HTC are likely to follow suit.

However while Samsung used Qualcomm S4 Play chipset, Sony and HTC are likely to use Mediatek chipset also used in phones like Micromax Canvas HD, Xolo Q800 and Celkon Signature HD A119Q. You can read about 15 cheapest Quad core phones like these here .

The rumored HTC phone with Mediatek chipset is called HTC 608T and will come with a Quad Core 1.2 GHz MT6589 Chip set with 1GB RAM, 4.5 inch display with 1280x720p resolution and , powerVR SGX544 GPU. In terms of camera HTC is putting an 8 megapixel camera at the rear and 1.6MP camera in the front.

We expect HTC to bring in Beats Audio, HTC Sense user interface and better camera and display technology (like SLCD 3) to differentiate this product from the rest of the low cost Quad core phones from Indian and Chinese brands.

Sony on the other hand is working on a phone called C3 which is rumored to have a 5 inch display with updated MediaTek MT6589 T quad core processor clocked at 1.5GHz. No other detail are currently available, but expect Sony to put Exmor camera sensor, Bravia engine technology in display and Walkman feature for music to differentiate the product.

But the question comes why Mediatek? These brands have traditionally used Qualcomm chipsets but since Qualcomm S4 play chipset uses slower Cortex A5 architecture or older Adreno 200 GPU and offers lesser performance and also doesn't support very high resolution camera, which is not the case of Mediatek Chipset , which supports up to 13 Megapixel camera, and uses Cortex A7 architecture and also a more modern GPU delivering overall better performance at the same price.

The other reason is the low cost market is moving towards quad core phone very rapidly and with these phones Indian and Chinese brands are attracting a lot of buyers and therefore it is imperative for brands like HTC and Sony to move fast and reduce the price differential with these brands to be able to remain relevant in this fast growing market.