If you’ve bought a phone recently, you might not have thought too much about the chipset. But it’s fundamental to the way the device works.
Officially known as an SoC (system on a chip), they combine CPU (central processing unit), GPU (graphics processing unit) and RAM (random access memory) onto a single piece of silicon.
Most modern chipsets also include NPUs (neural processing units), which are specifically designed for machine learning – essentially, AI features 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 former’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 launching later this month, MediaTek has got in there first, and the new Dimensity 9400 looks like an absolute beast. Here’s everything you need to know about MediaTek’s latest and greatest.
When will the MediaTek Dimensity 9400 be released?
MediaTek officially announced the Dimensity 9400 on 9 October 2024. While the launch took place in its native Taiwan, the chipset will be available globally.
Since returning to the flagship chipset space in 2021, MediaTek has maintained a very consistent release schedule:
- Dimensity 9000 – Q4 2021
- Dimensity 9200 – Q4 2022
- Dimensity 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 at least one of its Find X8 phones will use the chip, with the regular model rumoured (via Smartprix) to launch later this month.
For now, MediaTek simply says that the first Dimensity 9400 smartphones will be available “starting in Q4 of 2024”. Then, plenty more Android phones and potentially tablets will probably use the Dimensity 9400 throughout 2025 and even beyond.
Which phones will use the MediaTek Dimensity 9400?
Alongside the announcement, Oppo has confirmed that it will have the honour of releasing the first Dimensity 9400-powered.
So far, all we know is that it’ll be part of the Find X8 series. Oppo may match what it did with the Find X7 series, where the regular model used the Dimensity 9300 but the Ultra opted for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.
Neither of those phones was released in Europe, but Oppo has already confirmed that it’ll be a different story this time around.
As for other models, we can look at Dimensity 9300 and 9300+ devices. It’s 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 is rumoured to cost between $190/£140 and $240/£180, the MediaTek Dimensity 9400 is said to still be more affordable.
This means that the phones powered by the Dimensity 9400 are likely to be more expensive than their predecessors.
Jon Mundy / Foundry
What specs and features does the MediaTek Dimensity 9400 have?
With the Dimensity 9400, MediaTek wants to become the go-to chip maker for flagship Android phones and tablets. And judging by the specs and benchmarks, it’s going about things in the right way.
The Dimensity 9400 is focused on three key areas: performance, power efficiency and AI experiences. Built on the second generation of TSMC’s 3nm process, it’s also the second iteration of MediaTek’s ‘All Big Core’ design.
It means none of the eight total cores are so-called “LITTLE” cores in the traditional “big:LITTLE” structure, found on chips including the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.
Instead, you get one main Arm Cortex-X985 core, which can operate at up to 3.62GHz. It’s joined by three Cortex-X925s at 3.3GHz, plus four smaller Cortex-A720 cores.
According to MediaTek, this improved lineup yields 35% faster single-core performance and 28% faster multi-core performance than last year’s Dimensity 9300 – a significant leap.
Interestingly, despite none of the “LITTLE” cores that traditionally focus on power efficiency, MediaTek advertises a 25% gen-on-gen reduction in power consumption. This should enable better battery life in otherwise identical devices, or a greater capacity for intense workloads.
The Dimensity 9400 also has double the L2 cache and 50% higher L3 cache than the Dimensity 9300, allowing for more memory to be held at these faster speeds. The LPDDR5x memory itself can reach 10.7Gbps, offering a 25% increase in performance and a 25% reduction in power consumption compared to last year.
MediaTek
Benchmarks shared by MediaTek deliver encouraging results, with significantly higher scores across 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. Raytracing performances supposedly up to 40% faster as a result, reaching a higher peak performance while significantly improving power savings.
MediaTek claims you can expect “super immersive gaming experiences”, including “PC-level features”.
The Dimensity 9400 also boasts MediaTek’s eighth-generation NPU. Amongst other things, it’s heavily focused on boosting 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 ties in with MediaTek’s vision of a unified system across various apps and services, where a single command could intelligently trigger several processes.
There’s also plenty of future-proofing here, with support for the latest iteration of Wi-Fi 7 and support for tri-fold phones, with the Huawei Mate XT potentially joined by competitors from Xiaomi, Oppo and Tecno soon.
On paper, the Dimensity 9400 sounds like an immensely capable chipset. But will it be able to beat Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 in the battle of the flagship chipsets? That remains to be seen.
Author: Anyron Copeman, Mobile Editor, Tech Advisor
Anyron is Mobile Editor at Tech Advisor, where he’s been a mainstay of the editorial team since 2019. In his current role, Anyron is responsible for all smartphone, tablet and mobile network coverage on the site. A BA Journalism graduate, he has experience with a wide range of consumer tech products and services, including smartphones, tablets, foldables, wearables and more.