New Qualcomm, MediaTek Chips Could Power Some of 2025’s Best New Phones

Qualcomm and MediaTek keep most of our mobile gadgets running, and each has a new chipset that will power midrange to high-end Android phones launching later in the year.

Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 mobile platform will be inside new phones from Honor, Realme, and Vivo in the coming months, though we don’t know which specific models.

The chip has a 27% improvement in CPU power over the last-gen, 30% improvement in GPU performance, and a 65% boost in NPU power. That NPU boost is because Qualcomm is using this chipset to improve AI features for midrange Android phones, like adding support for generative AI assistants and large language models (LLMs) that run directly on the device.

We’ve seen similar AI features on Qualcomm products before, but not on cheaper models. You can also expect also camera improvements, including new AI-powered auto focus, auto white balance, and electronic image stabilization.

Previously, Motorola and Nothing have used Snapdragon 7 Gen chipsets in phones that went on sale in the US. That may mean we see this chip on future phones from those phone makers, but neither have been officially announced as partners.

In a separate reveal, rival MediaTek revealed its new Dimensity 9400e chipset, which will sit underneath the more powerful 9400 and 9400+. It’s similar to MediaTek’s 9300+ from 2024, but there are a couple of key changes.

The 9400e is a 4nm chip featuring the brand’s signature all-big-core CPU architecture made of four Cortex-X4 cores clocked at 3.4GHz and four Cortex-A720 cores at 2.0GHz. Other improvements include high-frame-rate stability with lower power consumption when gaming and support for mobile ray tracing. On the connectivity side, it now features 7.3Gbps Wi-Fi peak data rate, up from 6.5Gbps on the last-gen.

Both OnePlus and Realme plan to use this chipset, but it’s unlikely these devices will come to the US. OnePlus does sell its phones in the US, but it often avoids stocking its cheaper handsets here and prioritizes markets like China and India.

About James Peckham

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I’ve written tech news for over a decade, and as a Reporter at PCMag, I cover the latest developments across the gadgets and services you use every day. Previously, I worked for Android Police, TechRadar, and more.

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