MediaTek Sets Its Sights High: The 2nm Dimensity 9600 Aims to Beat the Competition

Among the new generation 2nm chips expected to arrive in the second half of 2026, there is also room for future proposals from MediaTek. The company plans to introduce the new Dimensity 9600, which is expected to have a Pro version, following the example of Qualcomm, which is ready to launch two Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 chips. New leaks provide early details on MediaTek's new chip, which aims to surpass the offerings from Qualcomm and Apple, becoming the best 2nm chip on the market.

Performance Goals

MediaTek aims high with the new Dimensity 9600 (and its Pro variant). The chip will feature an 8-core CPU and will utilize all "big cores", focusing primarily on performance, thanks in part to the significant advancement in battery capabilities for smartphones, which, thanks to silicon-carbon technology, now provide greater leeway for chip manufacturers.

As mentioned at the outset, MediaTek will employ a 2nm manufacturing process and will rely on TSMC. The company’s goal would be to maximize single-core performance, aiming to match and surpass the next-generation chips from Apple. Among the innovations, there will be enhanced features for the Compute Matrix Engine (CME) and Scalable Matrix Extension (SME) along with an updated GPU, with the goal of outperforming the GPUs of competing 2nm chips.

Like Apple and Qualcomm, MediaTek will unveil the new Dimensity 9600 during the month of September. Several manufacturers are already ready to adopt the chip (we can speculate on OPPO and Vivo). We will have to wait for the first benchmarks to get a clearer idea of the generational leap.