High-end MediaTek-powered smartphone to land in the US for the first time this year

The Android smartphone market in the US is quite different from Europe or Asia, in that there are fewer options, especially at the mid-range and low-end. But even when we’re talking high-end, one thing is obvious – all of the top shelf devices in that market use a Qualcomm chipset. No MediaTek anywhere (and no Exynos either, for what it’s worth). And that’s despite the fact that MediaTek’s 9000 series chips have, for a few years now, been very close in performance to Qualcomm’s latest and greatest.

The situation will thankfully change later this year, when, for the first time, a “premium”…