MediaTek launches Dimensity 9500 processor for flagship Android phones

Note: This article was first published on 23 September 2025.

MediaTek has announced its flagship processor for 2026 Android phones. The timing of the announcement is interesting because the Qualcomm Snapdragon Summit 2025 is happening right now, where the company will launch its new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 SoC. 

The new Dimensity 9500 processor is the direct upgrade to last year’s Dimensity 9400. According to the company, users can expect “breakthrough on-device AI, top-tier performance, efficiency, and premium mobile experiences” from devices powered by the new chipset.

The MediaTek Dimensity 9500

Like its predecessor, the Dimensity 9500 SoC continues with an All Big Core design architecture, this time featuring a single ARM C1-Ultra core clocked at 4.21GHz, supported by three C1-Premium cores at 3.5GHz, and four C1-Pro cores at 2.7GHz. According to the company, this octa-core layout delivers 32% faster single-core performance, 17% better multi-core performance, and up to 55% lower peak power consumption from the ultra core. In practice, MediaTek says the chip is 30% more efficient, allowing phones to handle multitasking in apps like games, social platforms, and voice chat more smoothly while also using less energy. 

This time around, the Dimensity 9500 keeps the same cache setup for each CPU core as last year, with 2MB of L2 cache for the Ultra core, 1MB for each Premium core, and 512KB for the Pro cores. System-level cache remains at 10MB, but MediaTek has increased the L3 cache from 12MB to 16MB and doubled the L1 cache. These changes contribute to 32% faster single-core performance and a 16% boost in multi-core performance compared to the previous generation. 

Storage also sees an improvement, with the Dimensity 9500 being the first to support four-lane UFS 4.1, effectively doubling read and write speeds. Combined with the redesigned cache and memory system, MediaTek says AI model loading can be accelerated by up to 40%.

Artificial intelligence sees one of the biggest upgrades in the Dimensity 9500. The new 9th-generation NPU 990 with Generative AI Engine 2.0 doubles its compute power compared to the NPU in the 9400 while cutting power use by up to 33%. This means faster text generation, quicker image creation, and the ability to handle much larger AI models directly on the phone, including 3-billion-parameter LLMs with faster output and support for extended 128K-token text windows, along with 4K ultra-high-definition image generation. MediaTek has also added a Super Efficient NPU designed to run smaller AI models continuously at very low power, enabling background assistant and other always-on AI features to run in the background.

For gamers, the Dimensity 9500 integrates the new Arm G1-Ultra GPU, which delivers 33% higher peak performance, 42% improved power efficiency, and better overall ray tracing compared to its predecessor. The GPU supports up to 120 FPS ray-traced gaming with interpolation, along with Unreal Engine 5.5/5.6 optimisations for better lighting, texture streaming, and rendering. 

On the camera front, the Imagiq 1190 Image Signal Processor (ISP) allows for 200MP capture, RAW-domain pre-processing, and 4K 60FPS portrait video. Continuous autofocus at 30fps and a new portrait engine improve subject tracking and cinematic video. Meanwhile, on the display side, MiraVision Adaptive Display dynamically adjusts brightness, contrast, and colour saturation for clarity in both bright outdoor and dim indoor environments. 

Finally, connectivity. MediaTek says that the 9500 has 10% lower power consumption on 5G and 20% lower power usage on Wi-Fi, while 5CC carrier aggregation helps to boost bandwidth by 15%. There is also a 20% accuracy increase in AI positions and network selection technology, as well as 50% lower network latency thanks to AI congestion prediction. 

Availability

MediaTek says the first flagship smartphones powered by the Dimensity 9500 will arrive in Q4 2025, with OPPO’s Find X9 Pro and vivo’s X300 series already confirmed as launch partners.