MediaTek Dimensity 9600 Pro chip takes on Samsung, beats Qualcomm to the 2nm finish line

Credit: MediaTek Published Sep 15, 2026, 3:30 AM EDT Andy is a seasoned technology journalist with more than 15 years experience in the mobile industry, writing for Digital Trends, Wired, and more. Andy has reviewed hundreds of smartphones and tablets, dozens of smartwatches, and a host of smart rings, smart glasses, and fitness trackers, giving him a unique ability to assess and evaluate the latest products. His daily mobile tech life includes Android and iOS devices, smart rings, and a smartwatch, unless it's a special occasion, when a traditional watch takes its place on his wrist. Andy always has a strong opinion on the state of the mobile industry, and writes in-depth analysis features to put the latest news and products into context. He has attended multiple CES, MWC, and IFA tradeshows, has a passion for photography and cars, listens to far too much K-pop, and follows F1. You can find Andy's portfolio of work on his Authory page. Sign in to your Android Police account MediaTek has announced the Dimensity 9600 Pro processor, based on 2nm architecture, ready to take on Samsung’s groundbreaking Exynos 2600, and beat Qualcomm to the finish line. Made for agentic AI The Dimensity 9600 Pro is based on a 2+3+3 core architecture, with L2 and L3 cache, support for the latest LPDDR6 and UFS 5 memory, and a clever system called Fusion Architecture, where the CPU and NPU take on different AI tasks in parallel. As agentic AI gets hyped up by AI and mobile companies, the 9600 Pro’s Fusion Architecture aims to make the on-device experience fast and seamless. It works by intelligently splitting AI tasks between the CPU and NPU, allowing one to receive and execute commands, while the other analyzes them. This all happens at the same time, reducing the time it takes to process requests. The Dimensity 9600 Pro uses a dual NPU architecture, consisting of MediaTek’s 10th generation Super Performance NPU and eNPU 2.0, providing a 51% performance improvement over the NPU 1090, and a 40% power efficiency increase too. Performance improvements MediaTek has not announced the 9600 Pro’s clock speeds, but states it’s an all big-core system with a 17% single-core performance and 15% multi-core performance boost over the previous generation. The GPU is the first with an integrated NPU. It has a third generation ray-tracing engine for an 18% improvement in ray-traced game performance, native support for up to 185fps, and a 24% improvement in power efficiency when running at full capacity. MediaTek calls the new ISP its most powerful ever. Features include 60fps action capture, 4K resolution for slow motion video at 240fps, and 4K 120fps Cinematic LOG video capture. It also employs the NPU to enable 4K Live Photo support. Other notable features include AI optimized cellular connectivity, reducing lag during handover in multi-user environments, AI smart satellite selection for faster positioning, and Bluetooth 6.2 support. First phones with the Dimensity 9600 Pro MediaTek has not announced which phone brands will use the Dimensity 9600 Pro, and when we may see the first devices arrive, but this is not unusual. The 3nm Dimensity 9500 was announced in September 2025. Vivo was one of the first to use the chip in its X300 phone, which arrived in October. Oppo quickly followed, and put the chip in the Find X9 Pro. It’s reasonable to expect phones with the Dimensity 9600 Pro to arrive before the end of 2026. Competitor Qualcomm has not announced a 2nm mobile processor yet.