MediaTek Unveils Its First 2nm Smartphone Chip

MediaTek has unveiled the Dimensity 9600 Pro, its first flagship smartphone processor made on a 2-nanometre process. Announced on 15 September, the chip uses TSMC’s N2P process and is intended for premium Android phones expected to arrive during the third quarter of 2026.

The company also announced the Dimensity 9600M, a second processor designed to bring related flagship technologies to more devices. MediaTek has not confirmed chip pricing or named all of the phones due to use either platform.

Faster cores, new memory and storage support

The Dimensity 9600 Pro uses an eight-core 2+3+3 “All Big Core” CPU layout: two Arm C2-Ultra cores at up to 4.55GHz, three C2-Pro cores at up to 4.35GHz and another three C2-Pro cores at up to 3.1GHz. It also has 34.5MB of cache, alongside first-wave support for LPDDR6 memory and UFS 5.0 storage.

MediaTek claims up to 17% higher single-core performance, 15% higher multi-core performance and 61% lower multi-core power consumption compared with the previous generation. Those are manufacturer figures rather than independent tests in retail phones.

For games, the new G2-Ultra NX GPU supports hardware-accelerated ray tracing and can run games at up to 185fps, depending on the title, display and phone configuration, according to MediaTek. The company claims up to 27% higher peak graphics performance and up to 18% faster ray tracing.

A stronger focus on AI that runs on the phone

MediaTek is placing particular emphasis on local AI. The chip has a dual-NPU design, combining the NPU 1090 for intensive generative and agentic AI work with the Super Efficient NPU 2.0 for lower-power, always-on tasks.

The company says the platform can support on-device models of up to 30 billion parameters, and claims 51% faster LLM prefill performance and 40% lower power consumption for always-on AI. Suggested uses include analysing device data locally, proactive assistance, personalised responses and AI-assisted photography.

“AI is central to the smartphone experience, and devices need greater performance, efficiency, and intelligence to keep pace with rapidly evolving user demands,” said JC Hsu, corporate senior vice president at MediaTek and general manager of the Wireless Communications Business Unit.

Camera and connectivity features depend on the handset

The Dimensity 9600 Pro includes MediaTek’s Imagiq 1290 image signal processor, with platform support for sensors up to 200MP, 8K video at 60fps, 4K video at 240fps and 4K recording at 120fps with electronic image stabilisation. Actual camera modes will depend on how individual phone makers configure the chip.

Connectivity includes an integrated 5G Advanced modem, Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.2. MediaTek says the modem supports up to five-carrier aggregation, 350MHz of aggregated bandwidth and peak download speeds above 7.4Gbps.

OPPO is first confirmed phone partner

OPPO has confirmed that its upcoming Find X10 Pro Max will be among the first phones to use the Dimensity 9600 Pro, and that it will launch in international markets. The company also said the handset will introduce its jointly developed Laminar Flow Engine, intended to coordinate rendering and system scheduling.

OPPO has not announced the phone’s full specification, price, exact global launch date or a UK release. As of 17 September, the Find X10 Pro Max is not listed on OPPO’s UK site.

The 9600 Pro succeeds the Dimensity 9500, which was announced in September 2025. The latest generation moves from the earlier platform to a 2nm process, raises the advertised top CPU speed to 4.55GHz and adds support for newer memory and storage standards.