Smartphone chip race is on as Qualcomm goes 4K and MediaTek announces faster rival

If there is one inescapable fact when buying the latest, greatest tech it’s that whatever you buy today will soon be made obsolete by something launched tomorrow.

Today’s flagship Android devices come with Snapdragon 600 or 800 CPUs. As of today, that’s old hat, as chipmaker Qualcomm unveiled its Snapdragon 805 Ultra HD replacement. This – together with its on-board Adreno 420 GPU – will play 4K video and run at up to 2.5GHz.

But even that may soon pale against the chip announced by rival chipmaker MediaTek (via Engadget) … 

MediaTek has announced a true octa-core mobile CPU. That’s eight cores, against the four of the Snapdragon 800.

The MediaTek MT6962 (they may want to work on a snappier name) is beating the Snapdragon 800 by a substantial margin in benchmarks, while using less than half the power and remaining cooler into the bargain. If reflected in real-life performance, that’s great news for mobile gamers.

The company says it expects the 8-core chip to appear in the first mobile devices by the end of the year. Place your bets as to which company is first to use it …