MediaTek announced the Dimensity 9600 Pro on Tuesday, September 15th, marking the launch of the company's first chip produced using the 2-nanometer process. This component, intended for the next generation of high-end smartphones, promises to boost raw performance and optimize power consumption.
The company's strategy is to provide processing power for demanding applications, including artificial intelligence assistants that operate locally in the background on the device. A notable aspect of the Dimensity 9600 Pro is its Central Processing Unit (CPU), which consists exclusively of eight high-performance cores, distributed across two Arm C2-Ultra processors, three Arm C2-Pro, and three more Arm C2-Pro.
In practical terms, the company claims that this configuration results in 17% superior single-core performance and 37% greater energy efficiency compared to the previous generation. Furthermore, the platform stands out for being pioneering in supporting UFS 5.0 storage and the new LPDDR6 RAM, which provides higher transmission speed and agility in data reading.
In the field of Artificial Intelligence, the SoC incorporates a dual Neural Processing Unit (NPU) architecture. One of these units is dedicated to generative AI processing directly on the device, while the other operates in the background. This division, according to MediaTek, ensures that virtual assistants can operate without excessively draining the device's battery.
Graphics processing is managed by the newly introduced Arm Mali-G2 Ultra NX GPU. This mobile graphics card offers hardware-accelerated ray tracing features and significant visual improvements. The chip supports native gaming at over 185 frames per second while reducing power consumption by 24% during peak performance.
For photography-focused users, the Image Signal Processor (ISP) is capable of handling sensors up to 200 megapixels and introduces a novel feature: the ability to record slow-motion videos in 4K resolution at 240 frames per second. In multimedia functionalities, the Dimensity 9600 Pro is the first chip for mobile phones to perform hardware decoding of the H.266 video format and already has native support for new tri-fold foldable screens.
Regarding connectivity, the chip integrates a 5G Advanced modem, Wi-Fi 7 network support, and Bluetooth 6.2. The new processor has already established important collaborations; the Chinese manufacturer Oppo confirmed that the future Find X10 Pro Max and Vivo X500 Pro will be equipped with the Dimensity 9600 Pro. It is worth mentioning that in Brazil, the Vivo brand is marketed under the name Jovi.