MediaTek Helio G81 Ultimate Chipset Review — Specifications and Benchmarks

Before the details: the "Helio G81 Ultimate" is not technically a different chip from the familiar standard Helio G81.

Independent technical databases confirm this chip can appear under several names depending on the phone manufacturer: Helio G81, Helio G81-Ultra, Helio G81 Extreme or Helio G81 Ultimate — all mostly the same platform with nearly identical specifications.

More importantly, the base chip itself (Helio G81) is essentially a continuation of the fairly old Helio G70 architecture, repackaged with updated clocks and software features. That transparency matters, so no reader assumes the "Ultimate" name means a real upgrade.

The chip powers the Infinix Smart 20 and the Infinix Hot 60i. Performance: a purely budget chip for basic tasks only

The chip uses a dual-cluster, eight-core design: two Cortex-A75 cores at up to 2.0 GHz for primary tasks and six power-saving Cortex-A55 cores at 1.8 GHz.

That architecture is fairly old in chip terms (Cortex-A75 first appeared in 2017), which shows clearly in the results: only about 254,000 points in AnTuTu, and roughly 417 single-core and 1,322 multi-core points in Geekbench — figures that place the chip firmly in "acceptable minimum" territory and nothing more.

GPU: enough for light games only

The chip uses a Mali-G52 MC2 (sources vary slightly on its clock, between 820 and 950 MHz).

The unit runs light games such as PUBG Mobile at frame rates between 19 and 55 fps depending on the game settings and device temperature, but it is entirely unsuited to heavy or modern titles.

The real weakness: storage and connectivity

Here lies the chip's biggest constraint compared with anything even in the modern budget class:

• No 5G support at all — 4G LTE only (Cat-7 download / Cat-13 upload)
• Old eMMC 5.1 storage instead of UFS, meaning noticeably slow file transfers and large-app launches
• Wi-Fi 5 only and Bluetooth 5.0 — fairly dated connectivity standards in 2026

AI: very limited capability

The chip has no powerful dedicated NPU, relying instead on light AI enhancements covering object recognition (in the style of Google Lens), photo classification and background removal in portraits — basic tasks only, not real on-device AI processing.

Verdict

The Helio G81 (whatever its marketing name — "Ultimate" or otherwise) is a purely budget chip that suits only very cheap phones, and its usefulness is limited to the basics: calls, messaging, browsing, YouTube and very light games.

It is absolutely not recommended for anyone wanting 5G, fast storage, or performance that lasts for years. The real value here lies entirely in the phone's final price, not in the chip's name — especially with newer, better alternatives at roughly the same price such as the Dimensity 6100+ or Snapdragon 6 Gen 1.