MediaTek is expanding its “New Premium” range of mobile application chipsets — somewhere above the mid-range, but below the new $1,000 benchmark of flagships — with the debut of the Helio P70.

Though it uses some older ARM Cortex core designs, the P70 puts many transistors down with a 12nm die and pumps the speed up: four A73 units at a maximum of 2.1GHz and four A53 units with a top of 2GHz. The stock Mali-G72 MP3 is included as well as a dual-core artificial intelligence processing unit — the big feature it powers is the advanced streaming video encoder. Optimizations for certain games have generated a 7 percent performance bump with a 35 percent drop in power use against the Helio P60.

The integrated modem brings up to 300Mbps downlink and 150Mbps uplink with support for Wi-Fi ac and Bluetooth 4.2. It works with the latest emphasized network technologies such as 600MHz support for T-Mobile and HPUE for Sprint.

The Image Signal Processor can handle a single 32-megapixel camera or a dual-system comprised of a 24-megapixel sensor and a 16-megapixel sensor. Two assistive engines help with electronic image stabilization for video recording and contrast blow-out relief while taking load and power consumption off the core ISP.

The Helio P70 is going through volume production right now and will have commercial integrations by November.