MediaTek's New Dual Threat: Dimensity 9500s and 8500 Chipsets Unveiled

MediaTek just dropped the 9500s & 8500! 🚀 A 3nm "All Big Core" beast vs Snapdragon 8 Gen 5? Here are the specs 👇 

MediaTek isn't letting Qualcomm sit on the throne comfortably. The chipmaker has just pulled the covers off two new processors designed to power the next generation of smartphones. One aims straight for the crown, while the other looks to redefine what we expect from a mid-range phone.

Meet the Dimensity 9500s and the Dimensity 8500.

The Flagship Killer: Dimensity 9500s

Let’s start with the big gun. The Dimensity 9500s is a pure flagship beast built on a 3nm fabrication process.

MediaTek is moving away from traditional CPU designs with an "All Big Core" architecture. This means there are no weak, efficiency cores here—just raw power.

• The Brains: It packs one Cortex-X925 Ultra core clocked at a massive 3.73GHz, supported by three Cortex-X4 cores and four Cortex-A720 cores.
• The Graphics: It uses an Immortalis-G925 GPU. This chip supports advanced ray tracing, Adaptive Game Technology 3.0, and Frame Technology 3.0. Basically, if you game on your phone, this is ready to handle the best-looking titles.

MediaTek is claiming this thing can handle 8K video recording at 60fps with Dolby Vision HDR. That is insane for a phone. It also supports screens with up to 180Hz refresh rates and cameras up to 320 megapixels.

On the connectivity side, you get Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. This is going head-to-head with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 5.

The Efficiency Beast: Dimensity 8500

The real surprise might be the Dimensity 8500. It’s positioned as a mid-range chipset, but it’s borrowing tech from the flagship big brother.

Built on a 4nm process, it uses the same "All Big Core" idea, but with eight Cortex-A725 cores running at up to 3.4GHz.

Why does this matter? Usually, mid-range phones have a mix of big and small cores, which causes stuttering when you switch tasks. By using all big cores, the experience stays smooth.

It’s powered by a Mali-G720 GPU. MediaTek says this offers 25 percent better performance and 20 percent lower power consumption than the previous generation. You still get some high-end features here, like WQHD+ screens at 144Hz and support for 320-megapixel cameras, plus an 8th-gen NPU for AI tasks.

The main difference here is connectivity—you get Wi-Fi 6E instead of the flagship Wi-Fi 7.

The Battle for 2026

The Dimensity 9500s looks very close to the Dimensity 9400+ which launched earlier in 2025, but the tweaks in the GPU and the shift to the new X925 core architecture could be enough to give the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 a serious run for its money.

If the Dimensity 8500 hits the market at the right price, it could make expensive "premium" phones feel a lot less special when budget handsets are running 8 big cores at 3.4GHz.

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