MediaTek has officially unveiled the Dimensity 9500, its latest flagship chipset, promising big jumps in performance, gaming, and on-device AI. The new chip debuts with the ninth-generation MediaTek NPU 990 and an advanced CPU setup designed to outperform the Dimensity 9400. First Android smartphones powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 9500 are expected to hit the market in the fourth quarter of this year.
More Power with Better Efficiency
At the heart of the Dimensity 9500 is a new CPU design: one prime core running at 4.21GHz, three premium cores at 3.50GHz, and four performance cores at 2.70GHz. Paired with UFS 4.1 four-lane storage, this setup is claimed to deliver 32 percent higher single-core and 17 percent better multi-core performance over its predecessor.
Despite the added power, MediaTek says the prime core consumes up to 55 percent less energy at peak performance, which means better battery life. Multitasking also gets a boost, with up to 30 percent improved efficiency.
Big GPU Gains for Gaming
For gamers, the Dimensity 9500 introduces the Arm Mali-G1 Ultra MC12 GPU. According to MediaTek, it delivers 33 percent higher peak performance and 42 percent greater power efficiency than the previous generation. Advanced features like 120FPS ray tracing, Unreal Engine 5.6 MegaLights, and Unreal Engine 5.5 Nanite are supported, making it a strong choice for high-end mobile gaming.
AI That Works Smarter
One of the biggest highlights is the ninth-gen MediaTek NPU 990 paired with Generative AI Engine 2.0. This allows for more efficient large model processing with up to 33 percent lower power usage and twice the output speed for 3B-parameter LLMs. It can also handle 128K-token long text processing and generate 4K images, all while cutting power use by 56 percent.
Photography and Connectivity
The MediaTek Dimensity 9500 also shines in imaging, thanks to the Imagiq 1190 ISP. It supports up to 200MP photos, 4K 60fps portrait videos, and RAW-domain pre-processing. On the connectivity side, it supports LPDDR5X RAM, Bluetooth 6.0, 5G, and Wi-Fi 7, ensuring top-tier compatibility for next-gen flagships.
Coming Soon to Flagship Phones
MediaTek has confirmed that the first Android devices with the Dimensity 9500 will arrive later this year. The Vivo X300 series and Oppo Find X9 are set to be among the first, with the Vivo X300 already confirmed for launch on October 13. Both lineups have been teased to include the new SoC.
Going Head-to-Head with Qualcomm
Positioned at the top end of the market, the Dimensity 9500 will compete directly with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. With its performance upgrades, gaming capabilities, and AI-focused features, it’s shaping up to be one of the most competitive chipsets of 2025.
