MediaTek announced the Dimensity 9600 Pro, its new flagship smartphone SoC, on September 15, 2026. It is the first Dimensity chip built on a 2nm process, and its CPU uses a 2+3+3 layout made entirely of new-generation Arm C2 cores. MediaTek says multi-core performance rises 15 percent over the previous generation while power consumption drops 61 percent, and the chip is among the first wave to support LPDDR6 memory and UFS 5.0 storage. A lower-tier sibling, the Dimensity 9600M, was announced at the same time. The first phones using these chips are expected to arrive in the July–September 2026 quarter.

An All Big Core CPU that steps into the 2nm era

The foundation of the Dimensity 9600 Pro is the new 2nm process. MediaTek was the first company to announce that it had reached the 2nm milestone in chip development, and this launch turns that milestone into a shipping flagship product.

The CPU is the fourth-generation All Big Core design: eight cores with no efficiency cores at all. It pairs two Arm C2-Ultra cores running at up to 4.55GHz (2MB of L2 cache each), three C2-Pro cores at 4.35GHz (1MB L2), and three more C2-Pro cores at 3.1GHz (512KB L2), backed by 16MB of L3 cache and a 10MB system-level cache. Total cache reaches 34.5MB, and the L2 cache system is 21 percent larger than before.

MediaTek's generation-over-generation figures are a 17 percent gain in single-core performance with 37 percent lower power, and a 15 percent gain in multi-core performance with 61 percent lower power. The performance uplift itself is modest, but the efficiency gains are large, suggesting the move to 2nm was aimed more at heat and battery life than raw speed. These numbers come from MediaTek's own testing on demo devices.

Memory and storage also move to a new generation. LPDDR6 (10667) delivers 33 percent more effective bandwidth at the same frequency, and UFS 5.0 doubles read and write speeds compared with the previous generation. LPDDR5X (10667) remains supported, so phone makers can choose a configuration that fits their cost targets.

Two NPUs, and LLMs of up to 30 billion parameters on the device

For AI, the chip adopts a dual-NPU design with two units of different character. The NPU 1090 handles heavy generative and agentic workloads, while the Super Efficient NPU 2.0 takes care of light, always-on tasks. MediaTek says the latter reduces power consumption for always-on AI by 40 percent.

On the NPU 1090, LLM prefill (reading the input prompt) is 51 percent faster and token generation per watt is up 55 percent. INT4 compute doubles over the previous generation, models of up to 30 billion parameters can run on the device, and the chip also supports on-device inference of MoE (Mixture of Experts) LLMs and includes dedicated hardware for KV-cache compression.

Combining the AI Compute Fusion Architecture, which coordinates the CPU and NPU, with the third-generation Dimensity Scheduling Engine yields 40 percent faster LLM token generation and 27 percent faster AI model launch. MediaTek bundles these under the name Agentic AI Engine, targeting agent-style use cases such as analyzing on-device data to make proactive suggestions and learning user preferences to tailor responses.

Mali-G2 Ultra NX GPU with 18% faster ray tracing

The GPU is the Arm Mali-G2 Ultra NX. Peak performance rises 27 percent, power at peak performance falls 24 percent, and ray tracing is 18 percent faster, with support for gameplay at up to 185fps. A new Dimensity Neural Graphics Architecture links the GPU directly to the NPU for AI-based super resolution, and the chip adds hardware-accelerated ray tracing with OMM (Opacity Micromap) as well as multi-material reflections.

4K240 slow motion and H.266 hardware decoding

The image signal processor is the Imagiq 1290. Through the AI Imaging Fusion Architecture, which ties the ISP to the NPU, it supports 60fps continuous subject focus tracking and HDR video capture with a 17EV dynamic range. Video features include native direct output of 4K240 slow motion, 4K120 cinematic log recording, and 4K60 AI True Color Tone. Camera sensors of up to 200MP are supported, along with 8K60 video capture.

For media playback, the standout is that this is the world's first smartphone processor with hardware decoding for H.266 (VVC). It also supports MV-HEVC for spatial video, and on the display side it handles WQHD+ at 180Hz, a BT.2020 color pipeline, and tri-port MIPI for tri-fold devices.

Connectivity and security

The integrated modem supports 5G Advanced, with sub-6GHz 5CC carrier aggregation (up to 350MHz) enabling downlink speeds above 7.4Gbps. Wi-Fi 7 reaches up to 7.3Gbps, and Bluetooth is the latest 6.2. On the security side, the chip offers a hardware root of trust, post-quantum cryptography (PQC), and AISeal, which uses pKVM to isolate AI processing.

The Dimensity 9600M arrives alongside it

Beyond the top-tier chip, MediaTek also announced the Dimensity 9600M, positioned to bring flagship-class experiences to more devices. It uses an eight-core CPU of one Arm C1-Ultra, three C1-Premium, and four C1-Pro cores, with LPDDR5X memory, UFS 4.1 (4-lane) storage, an Arm Mali-G1 Ultra MC12 GPU, and the NPU 990, meaning it combines components one generation behind the 9600 Pro. Even so, it promises gaming at up to 185fps via HyperEngine, support for 320MP sensors, and support for the latest models such as Gemini Nano 4 and Qwen 3.5 Omni 4B, which should give it a strong presence in phones a step below the top price tier.

First devices start with OPPO's new flagship

MediaTek says the first smartphones powered by the Dimensity 9600 Pro and Dimensity 9600M are expected in the July–September 2026 quarter. OPPO plans to announce its Find X10 series in China on September 22, and the top model, the Find X10 Pro Max, is expected to be one of the earliest phones to adopt the Dimensity 9600 Pro.

Summary

The Dimensity 9600 Pro is a flagship SoC that directs much of its 2nm transition toward power efficiency. Its C2-only 2+3+3 CPU cuts multi-core power consumption by 61 percent, and it is an early adopter of LPDDR6 and UFS 5.0. Dual NPUs run LLMs of up to 30 billion parameters on the device, and features such as 4K240 slow motion and H.266 hardware decoding round out the package. The first phones are expected this quarter, with the OPPO Find X10 Pro Max, due on September 22, the leading candidate.