MediaTek has raised the bar for flagship smartphone processors with its latest offering, building on the success of last year's Dimensity 9400. The new chip brings significant improvements in AI capabilities, connectivity, and performance that could reshape what consumers expect from their mobile devices in 2025.
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Enhanced Processing Power with Big Core Design
The Dimensity 9400 Plus maintains MediaTek's commitment to the All Big Core architecture but with notable improvements. The chip features a single Arm Cortex-X925 core now clocked at 3.73GHz (up from 3.63GHz in the standard 9400), alongside three Cortex-X4 cores running at 3.3GHz and four Cortex-A720 cores at 2.4GHz. This configuration is designed to accelerate both single and multi-threaded performance for premium Android experiences. Built on TSMC's second-generation 3nm process (N3E), the chip delivers up to 40% better power efficiency than its predecessor, which should translate to improved battery life in devices using this processor.
Revolutionary AI Capabilities
MediaTek has made significant strides in edge AI with the Dimensity 9400 Plus. The chip incorporates the NPU 890, which now supports DeepSeek R1 LLM for on-device assistance. According to MediaTek, this makes the 9400 Plus the first chipset in the industry to support DeepSeek R1's four key technologies: Mixture-of-Experts (MoE), Multi-Head Latent Attention (MLA), Multi-Token Prediction (MTP), and FP8. The company has also implemented Speculative Decoding Plus (SpD+), which predicts the next tokens in parallel and allows the large language model to choose the correct one. These advancements collectively boost generative AI performance by approximately 20% compared to the original Dimensity 9400.
Gaming Performance Enhancements
The Dimensity 9400 Plus integrates the 12-core Arm Immortalis-G925 GPU, which MediaTek claims brings PC-level gaming features to smartphones. The GPU supports opacity micromap technology for more realistic effects in gaming, particularly for vegetation, character hair, and animal feathers. MediaTek states this GPU can double the effective FPS for phones while boosting power efficiency by 50% for game developers. The sustained performance capabilities should allow gamers to play for extended periods without experiencing lag, a common issue with intensive mobile gaming sessions.
Groundbreaking Connectivity Features
Perhaps the most impressive upgrade in the Dimensity 9400 Plus is its extraordinary Bluetooth range. The chip now supports phone-to-phone Bluetooth connections over distances of up to 15 kilometers (9.3 miles), a massive improvement from the 1.5-kilometer range of the standard Dimensity 9400. This capability could enable entirely new use cases for smartphone communication in areas with limited cellular coverage. The chip also features improved BeiDou satellite connectivity that's 33% faster at establishing initial connections when cellular signals are unavailable. Additionally, MediaTek's UltraSave 4.0 technology delivers approximately 18% power savings for 5G connections.
Camera and Display Improvements
MediaTek has equipped the Dimensity 9400 Plus with its Imagiq 1090 image signal processor, enabling HDR video recording across the entire zoom range. The chip also includes Smooth Zoom technology for seamless capture of moving subjects. Other camera features include Gen-AI Telephoto for improved long-range zoom and AI Audio Focus technology. While specific display capabilities weren't detailed in the announcements, the chip's powerful GPU should easily handle high-refresh-rate displays and advanced rendering techniques.
Market Availability
MediaTek has announced that the first smartphones featuring the Dimensity 9400 Plus will launch later this month (April 2025), with broader availability expected throughout Q2 2025. The company also confirmed that devices powered by the Dimensity 9400 series will be available in the US market later this year, though specific models weren't disclosed. Industry observers anticipate that brands like OPPO and vivo may be among the first to adopt this new chipset in their flagship devices.
Competitive Positioning
While the Dimensity 9400 Plus may not surpass Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite in peak CPU performance, MediaTek's focus on sustained performance and efficiency could make it a compelling alternative in the premium smartphone market. The standard Dimensity 9400 already demonstrated superior sustained graphical performance compared to several Snapdragon-powered flagships, and the Plus variant is expected to build on this advantage. With its enhanced AI capabilities and unique connectivity features, MediaTek is clearly positioning the Dimensity 9400 Plus as a differentiated option for manufacturers looking to stand out in an increasingly competitive smartphone landscape.