The battle between the highest-end smartphone chipsets is already underway, and it's soon going to open up for semi-flagship mobile processors. With the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 launch on the horizon, MediaTek is preparing Dimensity 9500e, and its details have leaked.
Dimensity 9500e is set to challenge Snapdragon 8 Gen 5
According to prominent tipster Digital Chat Station, the upcoming chip, which he refers to as the "Dimensity 9400++", is reportedly based on the tried-and-tested Dimensity 9400+ flagship processor from earlier in 2025. It is expected to arrive in the first quarter of 2026.
The leak claims the new chip's prototype is an octa-core unit with 1x Cortex-X925 core clocked at 3.73GHz, 3x Cortex-X4 and 4x Cortex-A720 cores. It also allegedly includes a Mali G925 MP12 GPU clocked at 1612MHz and is built on TSMC's 3nm N3E node.
The specifications are nearly identical to the Dimensity 9400+. Since MediaTek plans to position this as a sub-flagship SoC, future devices using the Dimensity 9500e should boast great performance and may hopefully cost much less. The SoC could perform similarly to the existing MediaTek Dimensity 9400 phones.
DCS also notes that the CPU, GPU, and cache are all similar to those of the Dimensity 9400+. They add that the first phones to use the Dimensity 9500e could be hardcore flagship devices with great all-around specifications, including larger batteries, premium displays, and excellent build quality.
To reiterate, the MediaTek Dimensity 9500e is rumoured to make its debut in Q1 2026. With the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 arriving soon with Oryon V3 cores and TSMC's improved N3P node, it's pretty much expected to perform better than the Dimensity 9500e.
Stay tuned as we cover more about the Dimensity 9500e as we approach its launch. Similarly, phones sporting the same processor should also start leaking soon.
