The move to a more efficient process allowed MediaTek to squeeze in two extra powerful cores (the newer Cortex-A73 in this case). The X30 still uses a three island design, but now it looks like this:

Core count Core type Clock speed
4x Cortex-A73 2.8GHz
4x Cortex-A53 2.2GHz
2x Cortex-A53 2.0GHz


This makes it similar to an Exynos 8890 in a way - four 'big' cores (A73 or Mongoose), then four 'little' ones, but this one adds an extra power saving layer with two more 'little' ones.

With X30 MediaTek is jumping to a PowerVR 7XT quad-core GPU, that's the same family of GPUs as the ones used in current iPhones and iPads. The chipset will support up to 8GB of LPDDR4, fast UFS 2.1 storage and dual-cameras up to 26MP. An LTE Cat. 12 modem will offer blazing fast speeds with three carrier aggregation.
Would like this cpu in a Linux machine.