- MediaTek has introduced its fourth generation All Big Core CPU architecture in the Dimensity 9600 Pro, featuring two Arm C2-Ultra cores clocked at up to 4.55GHz for high-performance processing.
- The Dimensity 9600 Pro is built on TSMC’s 2nm process and supports LPDDR6 memory and UFS 5.0 storage.
- It features a dual-NPU architecture with NPU 1090 and Super-Efficient NPU 2.0 for higher AI performance and improved power efficiency.
- It is the first smartphone SoC with hardware H.266 (VVC) decoding support, alongside MV-HEVC support for spatial video.
- MediaTek’s flagship Android SoC share is expected to rise from around 5% in 2022 to 12% in 2026, while flagship Dimensity revenue has grown nearly fivefold.
- vivo’s X500 Pro series and OPPO’s Find X10 Pro Max will be among the first smartphones to feature the Dimensity 9600 Pro.
MediaTek has steadily strengthened its position in the premium smartphone SoC market over the past few years. Since the launch of the Dimensity 9000 in 2022, the company has expanded its presence across flagship Android smartphones, supported by deeper partnerships with Chinese OEMs such as vivo, OPPO and Xiaomi. Its share of flagship Android SoC shipments has increased from around 5% in 2022 and is expected to reach 12% in 2026, while revenue from its flagship Dimensity portfolio has grown nearly fivefold over the same period. Growing adoption of the Dimensity 9500 series compared with the previous generation, along with increasing semi content per chip and rising ASPs, has contributed to this revenue growth.
The Dimensity 9600 series will further strengthen MediaTek’s flagship portfolio, with improvements in performance, power efficiency, AI and gaming. The flagship SoC segment remains highly competitive, with Qualcomm continuing to have a strong presence across flagship Android smartphones, while Samsung is increasing the role of Exynos in its premium devices and Huawei continues to develop its HiSilicon portfolio. The launch of the Dimensity 9600 Pro marks another important step in MediaTek’s premium push. The timing is particularly important as the flagship smartphone segment enters a more challenging cost environment. Memory prices have risen sharply as AI infrastructure competes for DRAM and other memory capacity, putting pressure on smartphone BOM costs.
Global smartphone SoC shipments are expected to decline by double-digit percentages in 2026, according to Counterpoint’s Smartphone SoC Forecast Tracker by Vendor, Q2 2026. The entry and mid-tier SoC segments will likely be hit the hardest. The premium segment will also not be immune to this, but the impact will be relatively less. The premium smartphone SoC share is expected to increase to 40% of the overall smartphone SoC shipment market, up from 30% in 2024.
In 2026, we expect MediaTek’s flagship shipments to remain flat to slightly down. We expect a broadly similar number of SKUs compared with the previous generation. However, with increasing memory and SoC costs, Chinese smartphone OEMs are likely to see some pressure on flagship smartphone demand compared with the previous generation. Therefore, we expect shipments of the Dimensity 9000 series to remain broadly flat to slightly lower YoY in 2026. At the same time, the Dimensity 9600 Pro is expected to have double-digit ASP growth compared with the Dimensity 9500, which should help offset the impact of lower shipment volumes and keep flagship revenue broadly stable.
Premium Android SoC Shipments Share by Brand, 2024 vs 2026E
Source: Counterpoint Research's Android SoC Shipments Share by Brand
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100 due to rounding.
Note: Premium Android SoC shipments include the Snapdragon 800 series, Dimensity 9000 series, Kirin 9000 series, Google Tensor series, Exynos 2000 series, and XRing series.
Source: MediaTek
MediaTek Dimensity 9600 Pro Key Specifications
The Dimensity 9600 Pro is MediaTek’s latest flagship SoC and the company’s first smartphone chipset built on the TSMC 2nm process. It introduces a new fourth-generation all-big-core CPU architecture with dual Arm C2-Ultra cores, a new Mali-G2 Ultra NX GPU, and a dual-NPU architecture designed for generative and agentic AI workloads. The platform also has support for LPDDR6 memory and UFS 5.0 storage, with upgrades in gaming, imaging, connectivity and power efficiency.
Compared with the Dimensity 9500, MediaTek claims up to 17% higher single-core performance and 15% higher multi-core performance, while reducing multi-core power consumption by up to 61%. The chipset also features a 21% larger L2 cache system and 16MB of L3 cache.
- Two Arm C2-Ultra CPU cores clocked up to 4.55GHz
- Three Arm C2-Pro CPUs clocked at up to 4.35GHz
- Three Arm C2-Pro CPUs clocked at up to 3.1GHz
Source: MediaTek
Source: MediaTek
NPU 1090 Processor
The Dimensity 9600 Pro introduces a dual-NPU setup that pairs the high-performance MediaTek NPU 1090 for demanding generative and agentic AI workloads with the Super-Efficient NPU 2.0 for low-power, always-on tasks. Compared to Dimensity 9500, this NPU delivers 51% higher LLM prefill performance and 55% higher token generation per watt, while supporting on-device AI models with up to 30 bn parameters.
Source: MediaTek
The chipset also introduces an upgraded hardware compression engine with KV-cache compression to reduce the memory footprint of large language models, alongside support for on-device LLM training and Mixture of Experts (MoE) inference. The Super-Efficient NPU 2.0 provides a dedicated low-power domain for background AI activity, reducing power consumption by up to 40% for always-on AI workloads.
The Dimensity 9600 Pro also supports agentic AI, helping devices understand context, make decisions and perform tasks across different apps.
GPU-Arm Mali-G2 Ultra NX
MediaTek has further advanced its ray-tracing capabilities in Dimensity 9600 Pro, which integrates the new Arm Mali-G2 Ultra NX GPU. This GPU delivers up to 27% higher peak performance, 24% better power efficiency at peak performance and 18% faster ray-tracing performance compared with the Dimensity 9500. It supports gaming at up to 185 FPS, for more immersive flagship gaming experiences.
The new flagship chipset also introduces MediaTek's Neural Graphics Architecture, which combines GPU and AI computing to improve graphics quality and efficiency.
Enhanced connectivity and multimedia
The Dimensity 9600 Pro features an integrated 5G-Advanced modem with 5CC carrier aggregation supporting up to 350MHz bandwidth and download speeds above 7.4Gbps. The in-modem AI helps real-time network optimization, including reduced gaming latency. For local wireless, it supports Wi-Fi 7 with Triple-Band Triple-Concurrency (TBTC) and speeds of up to 7.3Gbps.
This chipset also includes MediaTek 5G UltraSave 2.0 and AI network tweaks to save battery without slowing down internet speed. It also supports Bluetooth 6.2 with a dual Bluetooth engine for stronger, smoother wireless connections.
For imaging and multimedia, the chipset features MediaTek's AI Imaging Fusion Architecture, combining the ISP and NPU for advanced image and video processing. It supports up to 200MP cameras, 8K video recording at 60FPS with EIS and 4K slow-motion video at 240 FPS. The platform also supports 4K60 HDR video with content-aware semantic processing and 17EV HDR video capture, delivering better detail, colors and dynamic range.
The Dimensity 9600 Pro is also the first smartphone SoC with hardware H.266 (VVC) decoding support, alongside MV-HEVC support for spatial video.
Memory and Storage Support
The Dimensity 9600 Pro introduces support for the latest LPDDR6 memory, with speeds of up to 10,667 Mbps, alongside support for LPDDR5X memory and UFS 5.0 storage. The combination of LPDDR6 and UFS 5.0 provides higher memory bandwidth and storage performance, supporting demanding AI, gaming and multimedia workloads.
Dimensity 9600 Pro vs Dimensity 9500
Overall, the Dimensity 9600 Pro represents a significant step up from the Dimensity 9500, with improvements across CPU performance, graphics, AI processing and memory. The move to TSMC’s 2nm process, Arm’s latest C2 CPU architecture, the new Mali-G2 Ultra NX GPU, NPU 1090 and LPDDR6 memory strengthen the platform for demanding flagship workloads. These upgrades position the Dimensity 9600 Pro as a more capable and efficient platform for next-generation flagship smartphones.
Source: Counterpoint Research
Expected Timeline
vivo’s X500 Pro series and OPPO’s Find X10 Pro Max will be among the first smartphones to feature the newly launched MediaTek Dimensity 9600 Pro. Both smartphones are scheduled to launch in September 2026.
