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Next-gen mid-range phones to get major boost from new NPUs, GPU
July 16, 2025
Silicon designerArmis responsible for the CPU and GPU designs seen in virtually every Android smartphone today, and the firm has just announced a few new designs for mid-range devices.
The most prominent announcement is the Mali-G57 GPU, marking the first time we see a mid-range GPU based on the company’s new Valhall architecture. This new architecture is also the foundation for theMali-G77flagship GPU.
Arm claims that the Mali-G57 delivers a 1.3x boost in “performance density” over its previous mid-range graphics silicon, theMali-G52GPU. It also touts 1.3x better energy efficiency over the earlier GPU. You can also expect support for foveated rendering inVRand 60% better machine-learning performance.
Furthermore, the chip designer says the Mali-G57 sports double the “texturing performance” compared to the previous GPU. Arm adds that the GPU is also capable of handling HDR graphics, physically based rendering, and volumetric effects. In other words, it’s shaping up to be a pretty compelling piece of kit in theory if you’re a mobile gamer on a budget.
The previous generation Mali-G52 GPU found its way into several mid-rangeHuaweiphones, such as theHONOR 9XandNova 5series. But it’s unclear whether theUS trade banmeans HUAWEI will have to stick it out with older GPUs.
AI silicon for more devices
The chip designer also announced two new NPUs, in the form of the mid-range Ethos-N57 and low-end Ethos-N37. Arm is claiming a performance boost of over 200% compared to “many other NPUs,” although this likely depends on the specific workload and other factors. These new NPUs are tuned forsuper resolution, object detection, image classification, and speech translation.
We haven’t seen Arm’s previous, high-end NPU (Ethos-N77) in smartphones to the best of our knowledge, as the likes ofSamsung,Google, HUAWEI, andQualcommhave all developed their own AI silicon. Nevertheless, Arm is pushing the Ethos-N57 for mid-range phones and smart home hubs. Meanwhile, the Ethos-N37 is being positioned as ideal for low-end phones, smart cameras, and digital TV.
Either way, we’re seeing machine learning becoming more pervasive in our lives, fromsmart speakersandTV boxestobudget smartphones. And with offline inference more important than ever thanks to services like thenew Google Assistantand Android 10’sLive Caption, it’s clear that improved AI silicon will be put to good use.
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