MediaTek has introduced two new chips designed to bring new capabilities to low-cost Chromebooks. Among other things, the new MediaTek Kompanio 520 and 528 processors bring CPU and graphics upgrades, battery life improvements, and support for higher-resolution displays, when compared with the previous-gen Kompanio 500.
The company says the first Chromebooks featuring the new processors should hit the streets in the first quarter of 2023.
According to MediaTek, the new chips bring an “upgraded dual-core graphics engine,” support for H.265 video encoding as well as decoding, support for higher-resolution displays as well as external monitors, and efficiency improvements for longer battery life.
As far as I can tell, the Kompanio 520 and 528 are very similar – the only difference MediaTek calls out in its press release is that the high-performance CPU cores on the 528 have a slightly higher top speed.
But the company hasn’t revealed full details yet, so we don’t know what kind of efficiency cores are used. I’ve rounded up all the data I could find to make a comparison table:
| Kompanio 528 | Kompanio 520 | Kompanio 500 (MT8183) | |
| CPU | 2 x ARM Cortex-A76 @ 2.2 GHz 6 x Efficiency cores | 2 x ARM Cortex-A76 @ 2 GHz 6 x Efficiency cores | 4 x ARM Cortex-A73 cores @ 2 GHz 4 x ARM Cortex-A53 cores @ 2 GHz |
| GPU | Mali-G52 MC2 2EE | Mali-G72 @ 800 MHz | |
| Display | Up to 2560 x 1200 @ 60 Hz Up to 1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz external display | Up to 2400 x 1080 @ 60 Hz | |
| RAM | LPDDR4x-3733 | LPDDR3 LPDDR4x | |
| Storage | eMMC 5.1 | ? | |
| Audio & video | HiFi 5 DSP VP9 decoding H.265 encoding & decoding | H.264 encoding & decoding H.265 encoding | |
| Cameras | 32MP 1080p @ 30 fps video capture | 16 + 16MP 32MP 1080p @ 30 fps video capture | |
Kompanio 520 and 528 processors both look great because of their core speeds and display specs!