Last year, MediaTek decided to move its yearly flagship SoC announcement to October. This gave the company time to partner with brands to launch Dimensity 9400-equipped devices ahead of Qualcomm and its Snapdragon 8 Elite. This year, Qualcomm is bringing its Snapdragon Summit event very earlier than the usual, in late September. This marks a major shift from Qualcomm, which has been sticking with November releases for several years now. MediaTek, of course, won’t wait this quietly. For that reason, it is bringing its next flagship SoC – Dimensity 9500 – one day before Qualcomm’s next flagship Snapdragon reveal.
MediaTek To Launch Its Next Flagship SoC One Day Before Qualcomm
The Snapdragon Summit will begin on September 23 and will end on September 25. The first day is usually the most interesting day for smartphone enthusiasts. That’s when Qualcomm is expected to unveil its new flagship SoC. The new chip is rumored to be as Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Elite, or Snapdragon 8 Elite 2. According to tipster Digital Chat Station, the company’s arch-rival MediaTek is provoking Qualcomm. It is launching the Dimensity 9500 SoC a day earlier, on September 22.
It is worth noting that DSC has a very solid track record. The Vivo X300 Pro and Oppo Find X9 Pro are expected to be the first devices with the Dimensity 9500 SoC. Qualcomm, on the other hand, should see its chipset on the Xiaomi 16 and the iQOO 15 series. Of course, we expect more devices to be announced after the respective chipsets’ reveal.
This is a big twist for the market, as we’re about to see “next-year flagships” launching… this year. Although both chipsets are expected to be the top performers for 2026, we may see many devices featuring them as early as 2025, thanks to this earlier release schedule. Considering market demands, it wouldn’t be surprising to see revised versions of these chipsets arriving in the first months of 2026—such as a Dimensity 9500+ or Snapdragon 8+ Elite 2.
MediaTek Dimensity 9500 Alleged Specifications
Until now, flagship SoCs were typically unveiled in the final months of the year. This allowed brands to keep them fresh and exciting for most of the following year. This year, however, new flagship SoCs are launching in September. It certainly raises the question: how attractive and fresh will they still be by the end of Q1 or Q2 2026? Most likely, we’ll see new Plus variants launching next year to maintain interest.
MediaTek’s upcoming flagship chip will be made on TSMC’s N3P node (3nm). It is expected to feature an eight-core CPU using ARM’s latest Cortex-X9 design. A Geekbench listing from earlier this year revealed the CPU will feature a Travis X930 main core. The big core will be clocked at 3.23 GHz. It will also have 2x Alto Cores running at 3.03 GHz, and 4 x Gelas cores ticking at 2.23 GHz. There will be a more efficient Mali-G1-Ultra MC12 GPU, which is clocked at 1 GHz and will be able to run ray tracing games at over 100 fps. The new chip will also feature a new NPU rated at 100 TOPs.
