MediaTek beats Qualcomm to the punch by announcing new high-end SoC with built-in 5G

MediaTek is not particularly well-known outside markets like China and India, where the Taiwan-based semiconductor company powers a large number of ultra-affordable smartphones with low to mid-end specifications. But the chipmaker obviously wants to expand its global footprint, as well as ramp up its high-end efforts in an attempt to provide stiffer competition for Qualcomm's industry-leading Snapdragon flagships.

A newly unveiled, as-yet-unnamed processor could help MediaTek achieve both those goals, aiming to find its way inside the "first wave of high-end 5G smartphones" sometime ...