5 of the best MediaTek-powered smartphones currently around

The HTC One M9+, the Asian variant of this year's HTC flagship, is a fairly different beast compared to the regular One M9. In the context of this article, what really interests us if the fact that the Asian HTC flagship replaces the debated Snapdragon 810 with a MediaTek MT6795 chip, a SoC that's also known as the Helio X10.

The 5.5-inch display runs a resolution of 1440 by 2560 pixels, being both larger and sharper than the 5-inch 1080p display featured by the regular One M9. Furthermore, the One M9+ also comes with a fingerprint reader, a feature that's missing from the regular version of the One M9. Other specs include 3GB of RAM, 32GB of microSD-expandable internal storage, a dual-camera setup (20MP primary sensor and 2.1MP depth-sensing camera) on the back, and a 4MP secondary shooter on the front. The lights are kept on by a 2840mAh non-removable battery.

The Helio X10 integrates eight ARM Cortex A53 cores clocked at 2.2GHz as well as a PowerVR Rogue G620 GPU, being the fastest chip that MediaTek currently makes. External benchmarks show that the chip is very capable of competing in the upper midrange segment of the smartphone SoC market. Paired with such high resolutions as the one on the M9 Plus, the Helio X10 is capable of running most games, although performance will take a hit when testing out the most graphically-advanced games currently available on Android.

Gionee Elife S7

Sony's selfie phone, the Xperia C4, is yet another interesting smartphone based on MediaTek silicon. The highlight feature of the Sony Xperia C4, a mid-range smartphone across the board, is its front-facing LED flash, which complements a 5MP secondary shooter.

Like the Gionee S7, the Sony Xperia C4 is based on the MediaTek 6752 chipset. Other similarities include a a resolution of 1080 by 1920 pixels -although this time on larger 5.5-inch display -, 2GB of RAM, a 13MP primary camera, and 16GB of internal storage (the Xperia C4 integrates a microSD card slot).

Interestingly, although at 7.9mm across the waist the C4 is notably thicker than the Gionee Elfie S7, the Xperia C4 comes with a slightly less capacious 2600mAh.

Meizu MX4

Unlike the other smartphones on this list, which use the latest-generation 64-bit processors from MediaTek, the Meizu MX4 is based on the MT6595 chipset, a mobile SoC that used to be MediaTek's top offering before the chipmaker's unveiling of the MT67 line-up. The MT6595 includes four ARM Cortex-A17 cores clocked at 2.2GHz and four 1.7GHz cores clocked at 1.7GHz, as well as a PowerVR G6200 MP4.

The most notable Meizu MX4 feature is the inclusion of a high-resolution display with very slim bezels. The display measures 5.36 inches across the diagonal and runs a resolution of 1152 x 1920 pixels. Other highlights include the 20.7MP primary camera and the 3100mAh battery. The Meizu MX4 also comes with 16/32/64GB internal storage space, a microSD card slot, a 2MP secondary shooter, and 2GB of RAM. Check out our our full Meizu MX4 review to learn more about the handset.

Customers in Europe and China can also get the Ubuntu Touch version of the MX4, one that comes with the same hardware specs.

The Meizu MX5 will be unveiled tomorrow, on June 30th, and will most likely integrate a MediaTek MT6795 / Helio X10 CPU. Leaked benchmarks hint at impressive multi-core performance.

By Western standards, the Vivo X5 Max Platinum Edition has a bit of an odd name, but this is actually a pretty decently-specced smartphone. Based on the MediaTek MT6752, the Platinum Edition of the Vivo X5 Max comes with an impressive 4150mAh battery, and this despite maintaining a 7.3mm waistline.

The remainder of the specs seem to be good enough for an upper midrange handset. This includes 3GB of RAM, a 5.5-inch 1080 x 1920 display, a 13MP primary camera, 32GB of microSD-expandable internal storage, and a 5MP secondary shooter on the front.