Qualcomm has recently announced its new processors, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6. Complicated, and once again, aside from the changed naming, we already talked about them in our launch article. We’re here to do a comparison, actually. We’re here to compare the very best Qualcomm has to offer with the very best from MediaTek. As many of you know, MediaTek recently announced its flagship processor as well: the Dimensity 9600 Pro.
As a reminder, we compared their predecessors about a year ago. It’s now time to do the same with new-gen models. Both the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 and MediaTek Dimensity 9600 Pro are immensely powerful chips; there’s no doubt about that. They’re both built on a 2nm process node, and alongside the Apple A20 Pro, they are the most powerful smartphone chips on the market now. Those two chips will be used by many flagship smartphones over the next year or so, so let’s see how they compare. We’ll list everything in the table below.
| Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 | MediaTek Dimensity 9600 Pro | |
| Architecture | 64-bit | 64-bit |
| Process node | 2nm (N2P) | 2nm (N2P) |
| CPU | – Octa-core – Custom-built Qualcomm Oryon CPU – 2 Prime cores, up to 5.0GHz – 6 performance cores, up to 4.0GHz – 16MB Qualcomm Oryon Flex Cache – 10% improved CPU performance (over Gen 5) – 37% improved CPU power efficiency (over Gen 5) |
– Octa-core – Arm cores – 2x Arm C2-Ultra, 2MB L2 cache – 3x Arm C2-Pro, 1MB L2 cache – 3x Arm C2-Pro, 512KB L2 cache – 17% faster CPU single-core performance (over 9500) – 15% faster CPU multi-core performance (over 9500) |
| GPU | – Adreno GPU with matrix cores – 35% improved GPU performance (over Gen 5) – 40% improved GPU power efficiency (over Gen 5) – Qualcomm Game Quick Touch 3.0 – Real-time hardware-accelerated Ray Tracing with Lumen Global illumination – API support: Vulkan 1.4, OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 3.0 FP |
– Arm Mali-G2 Ultra NX – Supports native 185 FPS gameplay – 18% faster raytracking performance (over 9500) – Supports hardware-accelerated OMM raytraced gameplay – Ray Tracing Pipeline capable of multi-material reflection |
| Memory | – LPDDR5X/6 up to 5,300MHz – Memory Density: Up to 24GB |
– LPDDR6 10667 – LPDDR5X 10667 |
| Storage | USB 5.0 | UFS 5.0 |
| Wi-Fi | – FastConnect 8800 – Peak download speeds up to 11.6Gbps |
– Wi-Fi 7 (a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be) – AI Networking – Triple Band Triple Concurrency (TBTC) – Up to 7.3Gbps |
| 5G Modem | – Qualcomm X105 Modem-RF System – Peak download speeds up to 14.8Gbps – 5G Advanced, 5G mmWave, sub-6GHz, 5G standalone (SA), and non-standalone (NSA) modes, standalone mmWave, and mmWave-sub-6 dual connectivity, FDD, TDD – Uplink up to 4.2Gbps -mmWave: 8 carriers, 2×2 MIMO – Sub-6GHz: 4×6 MIMO – 6nm noode transceiver with 30% lower power consumption – 5th Gen Qualcomm 5G AI processor – Qualcomm 5G PowerSave – Fully integrated NB-NTN and NR-NTN support – 6-antenna (6Rx) support for smartphones – Qualcomm QTM565 mmWave module – Global 5G multi-SIM – 3GPP Release 19 hardware – NB-IoT for extended coverage – Supports all major global 5G bands, from 0.6 to 41GHz |
– Fully integrated 5G Advanced modem – Supports 5CC carrier aggregation up to 350MHz (>7.4Gbps) – In-modem AI (MMAI) enabling real-time network optimizations that reduce gaming latency |
| NPU | – 14% improved NPU performance (over Gen 5) | – MediaTek NPU 1090 (Generative AI, Agentic AI) – Super Efficient NPU 2.0 – Dual NPU architecture with Dimensity Agentic AI Engine – Supports LLM compression – On-device proactive suggestion and scene detection |
| ISP | – Qualcomm Spectra ISP – Dual Always-Sensing ISPs to support two concurrent always-sensing cameras – Triple 20-bit AI-ISPs – Elite Color Engine with real-time 3D-LUTs – Supports HDR, 16-bit LOFIC, DCG+VS, and DCG Staggered, QDOL, Less Blanking, and Multi-Frame HDR image sensors |
– Highly accurate 60fps continuous subject focus-tracking – Pro-grade 17EV HDR video capture with LOFIC and UFCC – Best-in-class 4K60 with content-aware semantic processing for true colour videography – Industry-leading up to 4K240 slow-mo video capture |
| Bluetooth | – Bluetooth 6.0 – LE Audio – Bluetooth Channel Sounding – Bluetooth High Data Throughput (HDT) |
– Bluetooth 6.2 – Up to 12Mbps |
| Display | On-device display support: – 4K+@120Hz – QHD+@240Hz Maximum external display support: – HDR, HDR10+, HDR Vivid, Dolby Vision HDR |
– WQHD+ 180Hz – Tri-port MIPI for Tri-Fold Displays |
| Location | – Concurrent GPS, Glonass, BeiDou, Galileo, QZSS, NavIC – Triple frequency GNSS – AI-based GNSS Location Gen 3 – Sensor-Assisted Positioning 6.0 – Global pedestrian navigation with sidewalk accuracy – Global freeway lane-level vehicle navigation |
– GPS L1CA+L5+L1C – BeiDou B1I+ B1C + B2a +B2b – Glonass L1OF – Galileo E1 + E5a + E5b – QZSS L1CA + L1CB + L1C + L5 – NavIC L5 + L1 |
| Camera | – Up to 64MP triple camera with Zero Shutter Lag – Up to 108MP single camera with Zero Shutter Lag – Up to 320MP photo capture – Cinema-grade video with APV support – 8k60 video capture – 4k240 ultra HD slow-motion video – 10-bit HEIF: HEIC photo capture – AI video processing |
– 200MP max – 8K60 (7690 x 4320) – 4K60 96dB HDR video capture – 4K60 HDR with content-aware semantic processing – 4K120 with EIS – 4K240 slow-mo |
| USB | USB 3.1 Gen 2 | N/A |
| Charging | Qualcomm Quick Charge 5 | N/A |
| Audio | – Qualcomm Sound Technology Suite – Qualcomm aptX Adaptive and aptX Lossless audio – Qualcomm Aqstic audio codec – Qualcomm Aqstic smart speaker amplifier – Playback: -108dB – Qualcomm Aqstic Speaker Max – Qualcomm Audio and Voice Communication Suite – Qualcomm Spatial Audio Renderer with head-tracking |
N/A |
| AI | – Advanced agentic AI with deeper contextual understanding – Significantly enhanced on device AI performance – 30B+ parameters MoE (Mixture of Experts) models 50% larger shared memory – 20% improved AI performance per-watt (over Gen 5) |
Generative AI, Agentic AI |
| Power Savings | N/A | MediaTek 5G UltraSave 2.0, R17 Power Saving Enhancement |
What OEMs will use them?
Qualcomm’s flagship processors are the most-used top-end chips in the world of Android smartphones. Companies like Motorola, OnePlus, Xiaomi, Samsung, and a ton of others use them. The same will likely be the case with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6. We already know that the Motorola Signature 27 will use that chip, as it was announced at the Snapdragon Summit 2026. The Xiaomi 18 Pro series will also be amongst the devices to use it, while some benchmarks showed that the OnePlus 16 will utilize the chip as well. A lot more companies will follow suit, as is the case every year.
MediaTek’s flagship chips are less used in comparison, but that is improving year-in, year-out. The Dimensity 9500 was on par with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 last year, if not better than Qualcomm’s offering. If you add to that the fact that the chip was cheaper, well… those are good news for OEMs. We do know that the Vivo X500 Pro and Vivo X500 Pro Max are using the Dimensity 9600 Pro. The same goes for the OPPO Find X10 Pro and Pro Max. Quite a few more phones are expected to do the same.
The post Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 vs MediaTek Dimensity 9600 Pro Comparison appeared first on Android Headlines.
​Â
