When you hear about smartphone processors, you’re likely to think of Qualcomm or its Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, which powers the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S25. However, the company with the largest market share in that space is MediaTek, which is known for its Dimensity chips. Now MediaTek has announced a new premium chipset with various improvements that are supposed to help it challenge the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.
MediaTek has officially announced the Dimensity 9500
For the first time, a MediaTek chipset breaches the 4GHz barrier thanks to the “All Big Core” design of the Dimensity 9500. The chip features the new generation ARM CPU cores, with a single ARM C1-Ultra core clocked at 4.21 GHz, three C1-Premium cores running at 3.5 GHz, and four C1-Pro cores at 2.7 GHz.
With minor improvements to the cache, MediaTek claims 32% faster single-core and 17% faster multi-core performance than last year’s Dimensity 9400. Probably more importantly, the ultra core consumes up to 55% less power at peak performance, and the chipset is 30% more efficient with multitasking. MediaTek doesn’t mention what the power consumption is during less demanding use, but anyone who’s into gaming or other intensive tasks should see that as good news.
Talking about gaming, the chip features an upgraded G1-Ultra GPU with up to 33% better peak performance and 42% improved power efficiency. The bigger upgrade is the doubled ray tracing units, leading to a 119% better ray tracing performance. MediaTek also claims 120fps support in ray tracing, but didn’t mention the games to which that applies. The chip also supports Unreal Engine 5.5/5.6 and Vulkan 1.4.
Major improvements to the AI performance
Oppo Find X8 Pro featured the Dimensity 9400. | Image Credit - PhoneArena
Hype or not, AI is here to stay, so MediaTek is introducing various improvements to the AI capabilities of the Dimensity 9500. The chip has the new NPU 990 on board, which is divided into a “performance” and a “flexible” core. There’s also a new and first-of-its-kind Super Efficient compute-in-memory NPU, which enables continuously running small AI models with reduced power consumption.
NPU 990 offers double the performance of its predecessor, a 128K token window, and 4K image generation. The new chip also supports SME2, which is an instruction set for faster processing of AI-based tasks. Not all software with AI supports it, but SME2 could make running smaller models on-device faster and more efficient.
New camera capabilities
Infographic with the Dimensity 9500 new features. | Image Credit - MediaTek
The most notable camera improvements are the RAW domain pre-processing, up to 200MP capture, and portrait video at 4K resolution with 60fps. MediaTek claims the chipset will enable 4K/120fps Dolby Vision video shooting with electronic stabilization for the first time on Android.
Would you buy a phone powered by Dimensity 9500?
Yes
68.75%
Maybe, if the performance is similar
18.75%
Maybe, but only if its faster than the latest Snapdragon
12.5%
No, I want a Snapdragon in my phone
0%
These features align with recent announcements by Oppo and Vivo, which are likely to use the Dimensity 9500 for their upcoming flagship smartphones. Oppo is teasing 200MP multi-frame processing on the Find X9 Pro, suggesting that the 200MP capabilities of the chip will be for more than snapshots. Apple offers 4K/30fps portrait video on the iPhone 17 series, but Vivo has said the upcoming X300 models will support 4K/60fps portrait video.
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Proper competition for the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
Vivo X200 Pro also featured a MediaTek chipset, and its successor will likely get the Dimensity 9500. | Image Credit - PhoneArena
MediaTek is boasting about various other features, including reduced WiFi and 5G power consumption, and longer Bluetooth audio range, but that might be secondary for many people. Earlier rumors claimed that the Dimensity 9500 could match the performance of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. If that happens, we might see a much more interesting flagship market than the usual.
Of course, we need to wait until both chips premiere before we can say anything about their actual performance. MediaTek says that the first devices with Dimensity 9500 will arrive in Q4 2025, with Vivo and Oppo already teasing their flagship smartphones. Qualcomm will announce the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 on September 23, with the first devices powered by it likely to premiere as early as October. One of them is the OnePlus 15, which has already shown up in Geekbench’s database. In any case, I can’t wait to see the benchmarks of both chips.
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Ilia, a tech journalist at PhoneArena, has been covering the mobile industry since 2011, with experience at outlets like Forbes Bulgaria. Passionate about smartphones, tablets, and consumer tech, he blends deep industry knowledge with a personal fascination that began with his first Nokia and Sony Ericsson devices. Originally from Bulgaria and now based in Lima, Peru, Ilia balances his tech obsessions with walking his dog, training at the gym, and slowly mastering Spanish.
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