MediaTek is increasingly targeting higher-end applications for its chipsets, with the likes of the Dimensity 1200 top-tier system for mobile devices already in the market.

Now the company is turning its attention to the tablets market, bringing in a more advanced platform, the Kompanio 1300T, which complements the existing Kompanio range.

The key takeaway from the Kompanio 1300T is that it supports 5G connectivity, encompassing the full set of sub-6GHz bands for speedy connectivity.

• What is 5G, how fast is it and how can I get it?

It's not a mmWave capable platform - something the company can deliver elsewhere in its products, as shown by its M80 modem - but with that technology's rollout being slower in the European region, we suspect a future Kompanio platform could cover such demand (more likely for the US market initially).

Kompanio 1300T, just like Dimensity 1200, is built on manufacturer TSMC's 6nm process. This six nanometre figure means shorter travel for the current within the CPU compared to older systems and therefore greater efficiency and power savings - ideal for battery longevity and particularly important when handling complex 5G data.

The Kompanio 1300T integrates an octa-core CPU with high performance ARM Cortex-A78 and ARM Cortex-A55 cores, along with a nine-core ARM Mali-G77 GPU. That's largely reflective of the Dimensity 1200 platform, except with Kompanio 1300T it appears there's no key ultra-fast core, so it's kind-of a small step down.

However, this kind of performance potential means support for 120Hz refresh rate displays and 4K HDR video, so it's certainly no slouch in capability.

Which leads us to the lingering question: which tablets is the Kompanio 1300T destined to feature in? MediaTek alluded to an Android tablet in behind-closed-doors discussion, but gave no further details.

However, with the higher-end Android tablet marketplace somewhat limited - it's mainly Samsung and a little Lenovo outside of Apple's own iPadOS ecosystem - we suspect it's more about knocking elbows with Qualcomm to show that there's no only one solution anymore.

So there we have it: MediaTek wants to punch higher in the tablets market from third-quarter 2021, bringing 5G, high-end features, and likely a pricing structure that may see Kompanio 1300T more widely featured as an Android tablet stablemate.