When it comes to mid-range phones, the Dimensity 8400 processor is a popular choice among brands. So, it is no wonder that MediaTek is hard at work prepping the Dimensity 8500 for this year launch. While we still await an official confirmation, a new leak has revealed the CPU architecture of the SoC ahead of time.
Dimensity 8500 set to bring overclocked Cortex cores
As per tipster Digital Chat Station (DCS), the MediaTek Dimensity 8500 processor will be fabricated using TSMC's 4nm process and will feature an octa-core cluster of solely ARM Cortex-A725 cores. This is the same 8-core architecture that last year's Dimensity 8400 launched with.
However, the biggest jump this time around is in the clock speed of these Cortex-A725 cores. DCS claims that instead of Dimensity 8400's 3.25GHz speed, the upcoming SoC will bump it up to 3.4 GHz. While on paper, this doesn't sound much, it is substantial when it comes to real-world performance.
So much so, that the chipset is said to be able to achieve more or less 2.2 million Antutu score in testing. This is actually a significant jump considering the Dimensity 8400 was able to achieve around 1.6 million.
Even the GPU performance is getting a bump in the Dimensity 8500 with the Mali-G720 GPU allegedly featuring up to 1.5 GHz frequency compared to the 1.3 GHz speed last year. This falls in line with what DCS outed earlier via the Dimensity 8500 GPU leaked data. Moreover, the Imagiq 1080 ISP and the MediaTek NPU 880 are also due for an upgrade with the MediaTek Dimensity 8500 SoC.
As for the devices launching with this chipset, DCS claims that the Honor Power 2 with 10,000mAh battery capacity could become the first phone to ship with this new processor. It is expected to break cover in the first half of 2026. So, expect MediaTek to unveil the Dimensity 8500 close to 2025 end, i.e., by December 2025. Also, tipster @saaanjjjuuu on X claims that the upcoming Poco X8 Pro will also sport the chipset.
That said, nothing has been made official at the time of writing. So, take these revelations with a grain of salt. We will make sure to report on anything concrete once more details are available. So, keep a close watch at Beebom Gadgets for more Dimensity 8500 related coverage.
