MediaTek is gearing up to reveal its next flagship chipset, the Dimensity 9500, just a day before Qualcomm officially announces the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2. 
Both chipmakers will unveil their latest processors in September, setting the stage for a fierce competition in the Android smartphone space for 2025.
The early announcement from MediaTek, reportedly scheduled for September 22 according to trusted Weibo tipster Digital Chat Station, could give it a crucial advantage in capturing industry attention and media buzz before Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit kicks off on September 23.
Both chipsets will be built on TSMC’s advanced third-generation 3nm process (N3P), promising significant gains in power efficiency and performance
. Yet, the Dimensity 9500 marks a shift in CPU design compared to its predecessor. While the Dimensity 9400 and 9400+ adopted a ‘1+3+4’ CPU cluster, the new chip is rumored to switch to a ‘2+6’ configuration, potentially enhancing multitasking and workload management.
Unlike Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2, which leans on custom in-house CPU cores, MediaTek sticks with ARM’s standard CPU and GPU architectures for the Dimensity 9500. Its performance cores are clocked at around 4.00 GHz, a step up from previous MediaTek chips but still behind Qualcomm’s impressive 4.74 GHz cores.
GPU-wise, the Dimensity 9500 is expected to feature the same 12-core Mali-G610 Ultra GPU as its predecessor. This contrasts with Qualcomm and Samsung, which use AMD graphics IP, often delivering higher raw GPU performance.
A key upgrade for the Dimensity 9500 is support for ARM’s Scalable Matrix Extension (SME), a technology designed to handle complex computations more efficiently. This could translate into roughly 20% better multi-threaded performance and noticeable single-threaded improvements, positioning the chip well for demanding mobile applications and gaming.
September promises to be an exciting month for mobile enthusiasts as these flagship chipsets battle it out. MediaTek’s early reveal could set the tone, but Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 will surely bring its own strengths to the table. Stay tuned for our full coverage as these chipsets officially launch and begin powering next-generation Android smartphones.