If you recently bought a phone, you may not have given the chipset much thought. But it is fundamental to the way the device works.
Officially known as a SoC (system on a chip), they combine CPU (central processing unit), GPU (graphics processing unit) and RAM (random access memory) on one piece of silicon.
Most modern chipsets also include NPUs (neural processing units), which are specifically designed for machine learning – essentially AI functions and other related tasks.
And while Samsung’s Exynos and Google’s Tensor can be found in some Android phones, there are two big rivals in the mobile chipset space: Qualcomm and MediaTek.
Ahead of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 launch later this month, MediaTek has gotten in first and the new Dimensity 9400 looks like an absolute beast. Here’s everything you need to know about the latest and greatest from MediaTek.
MediaTek has officially announced the Dimensity 9400 October 9, 2024. While the launch took place in its native Taiwan, the chipset will be available worldwide.
Since returning to the flagship chipset space in 2021, MediaTek has maintained a very consistent release schedule:
- Size 9000 – Q4 2021
- Size 9200 – Q4 2022
- Size 9300 – Q4 2023
As for when you’ll be able to get your hands on a Dimensity 9400 device, it doesn’t look like you’ll be waiting long. Oppo has confirmed that at least one of its Find X8 phones will use the chip, while the regular model (via Smartprix) is rumored to launch later this month.
For now, MediaTek simply says that the first Dimensity 9400 smartphones will be available “starting in the fourth quarter of 2024.” Then many more Android phones and possibly tablets will likely use the Dimensity 9400 in 2025 and even beyond.
Alongside the announcement, Oppo has confirmed that it will have the honor of releasing the first Dimensity 9400-powered.
So far we only know that it will be part of the Find X8 series. Oppo can emulate what it did with the Find X7 series, with the regular model using the Dimensity 9300, but the Ultra opting for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.
None of these phones have been released in Europe, but Oppo has already confirmed that it will be a different story this time.
As for other models, we can look at Dimensity 9300 and 9300+ devices. It is likely that their successors will use the Dimensity 9400:
According to Digital Chat Station on Weibo, both the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 and the MediaTek Dimensity 9400 are expected to see a similar price increase. While the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will reportedly cost between $190/£140 and $240/£180, the MediaTek Dimensity 9400 is said to still be more affordable.
This means that the phones with the Dimensity 9400 will probably be more expensive than their predecessors.
Jon Mundy / Foundry
Jon Mundy / Foundry
Jon Mundy / Foundry
With the Dimensity 9400, MediaTek aims to become the go-to chipmaker for flagship Android phones and tablets. And judging by the specifications and benchmarks, it’s going the right way.
The Dimensity 9400 focuses on three key areas: performance, energy efficiency and AI experiences. Built on the second generation of TSMC’s 3nm process, it is also the second iteration of MediaTek’s ‘All Big Core’ design.
It means that none of the eight cores are so-called ‘LITTLE’ cores in the traditional ‘big:LITTLE’ structure, found on chips like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.
Instead, you get one main arm Cortex-X985 core, which can run at up to 3.62 GHz. It’s joined by three Cortex-X925s at 3.3 GHz, plus four smaller Cortex-A720 cores.
According to MediaTek, this improved range delivers 35% faster single-core performance and 28% faster multi-core performance than last year’s Dimensity 9300 – a significant jump.
Interestingly, despite none of the “SMALL” cores traditionally focusing on energy efficiency, MediaTek advertises a 25% gen-on-gen reduction in power consumption. This should enable better battery life in otherwise identical devices, or greater capacity for intensive workloads.
The Dimensity 9400 also has double the L2 cache and 50% higher L3 cache than the Dimensity 9300, allowing it to hold more memory at these higher speeds. The LPDDR5x memory itself can reach 10.7 Gbps, delivering a 25% performance improvement and a 25% reduction in power consumption compared to last year.
MediaTek
MediaTek
MediaTek
Benchmarks shared by MediaTek show encouraging results, with significantly higher scores in Geekbench 6.2 and AnTuTu.
On the graphics side, the Dimensity 9400 has a 12-core Arm Immortalis-G925 GPU – that’s one extra core than the Dimensity 9300. Ray tracing performance is said to be up to 40% faster, achieving higher peak performance and significantly improving power savings .
MediaTek claims you can expect “super immersive gaming experiences,” including “PC-level features.”
The Dimensity 9400 also features MediaTek’s eighth-generation NPU. Among other things, it is strongly focused on driving generative AI performance. It offers on-device LoRA Large Language Model training, improved on-device video generation, and developer support for Agentic AI.
The latter is in line with MediaTek’s vision of a unified system for different apps and services, where a single command can intelligently activate different processes.
There’s plenty of future-proofing here too, with support for the latest version of Wi-Fi 7 and triple phone support, with the Huawei Mate XT possibly soon to be joined by competitors from Xiaomi, Oppo and Tecno.
On paper, the Dimensity 9400 sounds like an extremely capable chipset. But will it be able to beat Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 in the battle of flagship chipsets? That remains to be seen.