MediaTek has rolled out its first 2 nm smartphone processor, sharpening its challenge to Qualcomm in the lucrative premium handset market.
According to Reuters, the Dimensity 9600 Pro is built using TSMC’s cutting-edge 2 nm process, while the cheaper Dimensity 9600M sticks with 3 nm. MediaTek expects the first phones using both chips to appear this quarter.
The 9600 Pro uses a 2+3+3 CPU layout with two C2-Ultra cores running at up to 4.55 GHz. Three C2-Pro cores run at 4.35 GHz and another three at 3.1 GHz. MediaTek claims up to 17 per cent better single-core performance and 15 per cent better multi-core performance.
More interestingly for anyone whose phone spends half its life begging for a charger, MediaTek claims a 61 per cent reduction in multi-core power consumption. Those figures come from the company’s lab testing, so a suitably sized pinch of salt is required for this claim.
The chip carries a dual-NPU architecture and NPU 1090, which MediaTek says delivers 51 per cent higher LLM prefill performance and 55 per cent more token generation per watt. It supports on-device models containing up to 30 billion parameters.
MediaTek corporate senior vice president and Wireless Communications Business Unit general manager JC Hsu said: “AI is central to the smartphone experience, and devices need greater performance, efficiency, and intelligence to keep pace with rapidly evolving user demands.”
The silicon includes 34.5 MB of cache and supports LPDDR6 memory and UFS 5.0 storage. MediaTek’s AI Computing Fusion Architecture ties the CPU and NPU together, while its scheduling engine juggles compute, memory and power resources.
The G2-Ultra NX GPU handles graphics. MediaTek claims 27 per cent higher peak performance, 24 per cent lower power use at peak performance and 18 per cent faster ray tracing, with gaming reaching 185 fps.
Photography gets an Imagiq 1290 ISP combined with the NPU through MediaTek’s AI Imaging Fusion Architecture. The platform supports 4K video at 240 fps, 4K120 cinematic log recording, 4K60 AI colour processing and 17EV imaging.
The launch is aimed squarely at Qualcomm’s premium smartphone business, where fatter handset prices and AI bells and whistles mean better margins. MediaTek’s market value passed Qualcomm’s earlier this year, giving the rivalry a little more bite than the usual corporate chest-thumping.
Rising component costs could make that premium push awkward, although Hsu reckons increasingly expensive phones leave MediaTek room to grow.
“As the overall market moves to higher prices, I believe there is still room for us to increase our share of the flagship segment,” Hsu said.
MediaTek has meanwhile been pushing beyond handsets into data-centre silicon and custom AI chips. Its first AI accelerator for a major US cloud provider is due for mass production during the fourth quarter. MediaTek raised $3.9 billion through convertible bonds last month, with Nvidia putting $3.5 billion into the offering and long-standing AI infrastructure partner Alphabet participating.
