Power-hungry smartphone shoppers will have to think hard over what powers their next purchase. MediaTek has just unveiled the new Dimensity 9500 chipset, which is set to go toe-to-toe with Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon CPUs over the next few months and into 2026.
The last few Dimensity hero models saw MediaTek make huge inroads into what’s traditionally been Qualcomm territory, with big performance jumps and impressive power efficiency. It’s no coincidence the Oppo Find X8 Pro and Vivo X200 Pro were some some of the longest-lasting phones I tested in 2025 (though colossal battery capacities certainly help). This latest effort promises to be even more battery-friendly, while also bringing faster on-device AI and console-class gaming.
Each chipset is packing eight cores, including a single ultra core good for up to 4.21GHz, three premium cores, and four performance cores. MediaTek reckons it’s good for a 32% boost to single core performance and 17% multi-core improvement. Apps that rely on the ultra core will see up to 55% reduced power consumption, while games and multitasking that use multiple cores should see closer to a 30% improvement.
MediaTek is also officially first out the gate with support for 4-channel UFS4.1 storage, which could mean double the read and write speeds over previous top-tier smartphones. That’ll be a major boost for on-device AI, as loading large language models will be up to 40% quicker now. Pure number crunching ability has essentially doubled, while power consumption has dropped by a third. Dimensity 9500-powered phones will also be able to create generational AI images in 4K for the first time.
On the photography front, the image signal processor (ISP) will be able to handle 200MP sensors, 30fps continuous focus tracking, and portrait video recording at 4K/60fps.
Gaming could see the biggest gains, with support for two of the biggest new bits of tech in Unreal Engine 5.5: MegaLights direct lighting and Nanite geometry. The two are in regular use on PS5 and Xbox Series X games built on Epic’s software, and mobile support could pave the way to more ambitious console ports. 33% higher peak performance and ray tracing support at 120fps will certainly help there.
The first Dimensity 9500-powered phones are due before the end of the year, with Oppo and Vivo the most likely candidates. Samsung also has priors for using MediaTek chips in its top-end Android tablets.
MediaTek’s announcement was cannily timed to pre-empt rival Qualcomm, which is set to reveal all the details about its own flagship mobile chip – Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 – at its Snapdragon Summit later this week.
