MediaTek has launched the Dimensity 9600 Pro, its first flagship smartphone chip manufactured using TSMC’s 2nm process, with a focus on improving power efficiency and running more AI workloads directly on phones.
Announced on September 15, the chip succeeds MediaTek’s Dimensity 9500 and continues the company’s all-big-core CPU design. MediaTek says the new processor delivers 17% higher single-core performance and 15% higher multi-core performance while cutting multi-core power consumption by as much as 61% compared with its previous flagship. Those figures are manufacturer claims and will depend on how individual phones implement the chip.
The move to 2nm is particularly important for efficiency. Smaller process nodes can allow chipmakers to fit more transistors into a given area while improving the balance between performance and power use — potentially helping phones sustain demanding workloads without consuming as much energy.
MediaTek is also putting more emphasis on on-device AI. Its new neural processing hardware is claimed to deliver 51% faster large language model prefill performance, while a separate efficiency-focused NPU is designed for AI tasks that need to run continuously without heavily affecting battery life.
The first phones are already starting to take shape. OPPO confirmed that its upcoming Find X10 Pro Max will be among the first smartphones powered by the Dimensity 9600 Pro and will launch in international markets. Reuters separately reported that upcoming devices from Xiaomi, OPPO, and vivo are expected to use chips from the new Dimensity 9600 family.
There is no confirmed Philippine launch yet for the Find X10 Pro Max or other Dimensity 9600 Pro devices.
Still, the chip is relevant to the local flagship market. OPPO already sells its Find X9 series in the Philippines, while vivo’s locally available X300 Pro uses the previous-generation Dimensity 9500. That makes the Dimensity 9600 Pro a likely preview of the performance and efficiency improvements that could reach future premium Android phones sold locally.