This is how cheaper phones could get access to Google’s latest new features

Google made various bold promises during its I/O keynote, announcing AI agent experiences across Android. What the company left out from the big event was that the so-called Gemini Intelligence features would be limited to a shockingly small list of top-tier flagship phones due to steep hardware requirements.

While old phones will probably never support Gemini Intelligence, it appears that some upcoming mid-range devices may get them. The reason is a newly announced chipset, which may bring Google’s new AI to more affordable phones.

MediaTek announces a new chipset with Gemini Intelligence support 

Without much fanfare, MediaTek has launched a new chipset called Dimensity 8550. That’s the successor of the mid-range Dimensity 8500 processor powering devices like the Poco X8 Pro 5G and the recently announced Motorola Edge 70 Pro.

Most of the new chip’s specs are identical to last year’s silicon, but there’s one major difference. The Dimensity 8550 includes something called an LLM Booster, which allows it to support Google’s Gemini Nano v3 AI model.

The key to Gemini Intelligence

One of the key requirements for the Gemini Intelligence features was a processor with AI Core and Gemini Nano v3 support. Before the launch of the new MediaTek chip, only a few flagship chips supported that model.



Because of this, the Gemini Intelligence features are currently limited to a handful of flagship devices, such as the Galaxy S26 series, the Pixel 10 phones, and the OnePlus 15. Even relatively recent flagship phones like the Pixel 9 series, the Galaxy Z Fold 7, and the Xiaomi 17 Ultra only support Gemini Nano v2.

Unless Google updates its models, those latter devices are likely to miss out on the latest AI features.

Still not guaranteed

As usual, the devil’s in the details, and it’s not certain that every phone with Dimensity 8550 will run Gemini Intelligence. Among Google’s requirements are also 12GB of RAM and having a “qualified” chipset.

While announcing Gemini Nano v3 support suggests that MediaTek is working with Google, it’s unclear how many devices would clear the RAM requirement. The Motorola Edge 70 Pro, for example, comes with 8GB RAM, but it also offers a version with 12GB RAM.

Obviously, users online were not amused by their recent flagship being excluded from new features so soon, but not everyone was exactly sad about it either. Some users were actually happy that they won’t have to look for workarounds to remove the AI-powered features from their phones. There were even comments saying that the lack of AI would make cheaper phones more appealing.

Standing at a threshold

The proliferation of AI makes me feel like we’re back to the early days of the modern smartphones when annual upgrades were almost mandatory. Of course, the difference is that I’m not all that excited about getting new AI features, so I don’t feel very eager to get annual smartphone upgrades.

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