Chuwi an Android tablet brand have announced that the Chuwi HiPad Pro is getting an upgraded CPU with the MediaTek Helio G90T. When the HiPad Pro first launched earlier in the year it had the Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 processor. So why the change?
Update: The Chuwi HiPad Pro is available now from $299.
The most likely reason is that Qualcomm processors are a lot more expensive to buy and license than MediaTek processors. In an effort to save costs, Chuwi would have opted to get the G90T instead given the lower price. Another reason is that the Snapdragon 662 is already considered to be old by Qualcomm as it was released in January 2020.
Qualcomm would have stopped production of this and instead pushed one of their newer mid-range processors, like the Snapdragon 730G or 750G optimised for gaming.
Fortunately this upgrade really isn’t a bad thing. In AnTuTu 9 benchmarks the Snapdragon 662 scored 201469, while the Helio G90T scored 320544. Or to put simply, a 59% higher score. The Mali-G76 MC4 is also clocked higher than the Adreno 610 so the game performance is better too.
Besides the CPU upgrade, Chuwi have assured me that all other specs remain the same. This includes Android 11, 10.8″ IPS Display, 8GB RAM, 128GB UFS2.1 flash memory, four hifi speakers, 7000mAh battery and most importantly Widevine L1 DRM for HD Netflix and Amazon Prime.
One additional change Chuwi haven’t mentioned is likely to be the fast charging. The Snapdragon 662 HiPad Pro has Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0, so the Helio G90T HiPad Pro will use Pump Express 3.0 or 4.0 instead.
Availability
According to Chuwi the HiPad Pro Helio G90T tablet is expected to arrive late November to early December 2021.
UPDATE: The Chuwi HiPad Pro G90T is now available from Chuwi AliExpress from $299 USD.
The new tablet will be available on Chuwi.com and Chuwi AliExpress Official.
Alternatively the Chuwi HiPad Air with a UNISOC T618 processor can be picked up instead with Widevine L1 coming soon through an OTA update.