Dimensity 9600 Pro brings 2nm, LPDDR6 and UFS 5.0 in one jump

MediaTek’s Dimensity 9600 Pro is a new flagship phone SoC on TSMC’s 2nm N2P process. It combines an all-big-core Arm CPU, LPDDR6 memory support, UFS 5.0 storage, a 12-core Mali GPU and a split NPU design.

The manufacturing node is the headline, but MediaTek also changes the I/O and memory support. MediaTek says the 9600 Pro supports LPDDR6 at 10,667MHz and UFS 5.0. Those standards arrive alongside a CPU with no efficiency-core cluster: two Arm C2-Ultra cores at 4.55GHz, three C2-Pro cores at 4.35GHz and another three C2-Pro cores reaching 3.1GHz.

MediaTek characterizes that as a 2+3+3 All Big Core layout. Its claims versus the Dimensity 9500 are 17% higher single-core performance, 15% higher multi-core performance and up to 61% less power use across all CPU cores. The company separately says the ultra-large CPU cores can use about 37% less power for equivalent work.

Those are vendor figures, not independent measurements, and MediaTek has not supplied public benchmark scores, power measurements in watts or the devices used to derive them. A 61% power reduction sounds enormous, but without a stated workload, performance target and thermal condition, it cannot be treated as a battery-life estimate for a finished phone.

MediaTek has documented the processor in its Dimensity 9600 Pro announcement. The available specifications establish the architecture and feature set, but leave commercial essentials unresolved: no US launch devices, handset pricing or availability dates have been announced.

An all-big-core CPU, with a large shared cache

The eight CPU cores share a stated 34.5MB of cache across L2, L3 and system-level cache. MediaTek’s all-big-core approach removes the conventional small-core cluster that often handles background work. Instead, it uses lower-clocked C2-Pro cores for the bottom of its CPU performance range.

That makes the advertised efficiency gains central to the design. If lower-frequency C2-Pro cores can cover light and sustained tasks efficiently, the SoC may avoid using the 4.55GHz C2-Ultra pair except when an application needs them. But the configuration also puts more pressure on MediaTek’s scheduling, voltage management and cooling implementation. None of the supplied material identifies how OEMs can configure the chip’s power limits or whether tablets and phones will use different profiles.

The Dimensity 9600 Pro’s graphics side is Arm’s 12-core Mali-G2 Ultra NX GPU. MediaTek calls its graphics software layer Neural Graphics Architecture and says it adds a third-generation ray-tracing engine, hardware-accelerated OMM ray tracing, and Frame Rate Converter 4.0, its AI-assisted frame interpolation technology.

The company claims 27% higher peak gaming performance, 18% faster ray tracing and 24% lower peak-power consumption than its predecessor. It also says the GPU supports native gaming above 185 fps and can drive WQHD+ displays at up to a variable 180Hz. Those display limits apply to high-refresh phones, though they do not establish that a game will render natively at those frame rates; interpolation and rendered frame rate are different measures.

The chip supports tri-port MIPI, a capability aimed at devices with three display panels such as tri-fold phones. That is a capability in the silicon, not evidence of a specific product using it.

Pro and M are two very different upgrades

MediaTek also introduced the Dimensity 9600M, but the shared 9600 branding obscures a substantially older platform. The 9600M uses Arm C1-series CPU cores, LPDDR5X and UFS 4.1 rather than the Pro’s C2-series cores, LPDDR6 and UFS 5.0. It is described as a 3nm chip and retains the 12-core Mali-G1 Ultra MC12 GPU used in the Dimensity 9500.

The 9600M can still drive WQHD+ panels at 180Hz and supports tri-fold phones, Wi-Fi 7, NFC, USB 3.2 Type-C and 8K 60fps video. Its camera pipeline supports sensors up to 320MP and 4K 120fps capture with electronic stabilization, plus 4K 60fps HDR video with background blur and stabilization.

But it does not get the Pro’s newer CPU cluster, faster memory and storage standards, or its low-power auxiliary NPU. The 9600M’s spec mix is close enough to the prior Dimensity 9500 that it should be read as a continuation product rather than a peer to the 2nm Pro. The shared 9600 name does not make the platforms equivalent.

MediaTek splits the NPU for foreground and background work

The Dimensity 9600 Pro’s NPU 1090 uses what MediaTek calls a Dual NPU Architecture. The primary compute block handles on-device mixture-of-experts models, while a secondary always-on co-processor, Super Efficient NPU 2.0, is intended for routine background tasks at lower power.

Running an MoE model locally means activating only portions of a model for a given token or request, while the low-power NPU is meant to keep persistent tasks from waking the main AI block. MediaTek claims 55% better token generation per watt and 51% faster LLM prefill, the prompt-reading stage before token generation begins.

The source material does not state the model sizes, quantization formats, context lengths, token-per-second results or the power draw behind those figures. It also does not say which frameworks developers can target or whether the claimed MoE support applies to every model architecture an OEM may ship. The architecture is clear; the usable software envelope is not.

The NPU is also tied into MediaTek’s AI Imaging Fusion Architecture, which combines ISP and NPU processing. The Pro supports camera sensors up to 200MP, including LOFIC and ultra-full-color-capture cameras. Its video specifications include 4K 240fps slow motion, 4K 60fps HDR and 8K 60fps capture, plus a hardware VVC/H.266 decoder intended to reduce video file sizes.

One published description highlights 4K 120fps capture, while the fuller specification set lists 4K 240fps specifically for slow motion and 4K 60fps for HDR. These should not be collapsed into a single “4K 240fps video” claim: the modes carry different capture and processing requirements.

Connectivity reaches three active SIMs

MediaTek integrates 5G, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.2, NFC and USB 3.2 Type-C in the Dimensity 9600 Pro. Its modem also supports Triple-SIM Triple-Active operation, allowing three SIMs to be active simultaneously. Navigation support covers BeiDou, Galileo, GLONASS, GPS, NavIC and QZSS.

The 9600M has Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0, NFC and USB 3.2 Type-C, but a Dual-SIM Dual-Active 5G modem. That puts connectivity into the same product segmentation as the CPU, storage and NPU choices.

For US buyers, modem feature lists are not carrier-certification lists. The supplied reporting identifies no supported US bands, operators or phones. It therefore does not establish whether a Dimensity 9600 Pro device will be sold through a US carrier, sold unlocked in the United States, or support every relevant network feature.

The 2nm race and the missing product list

MediaTek’s move to TSMC N2P puts it among mobile-chip vendors publicly associated with the node. Samsung is described as having debuted the first 2nm smartphone processor with its Exynos 2600, while Apple has disclosed a 2nm A20 Pro for its iPhone 18 line. Qualcomm is expected to use TSMC N2P for Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 hardware, although the supplied material does not give a dated device roadmap.

That Qualcomm naming also leaves an ambiguity worth keeping separate from rumor. In July, our coverage of a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro leak pointed to a Pro-branded Qualcomm part using N2P, a larger die, LPDDR6 and new AI graphics blocks. The current MediaTek reporting refers to a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 without confirming whether Qualcomm will ship one N2P flagship, a Pro variant, or multiple tiers. MediaTek has now made its LPDDR6 and UFS 5.0 transition public; Qualcomm’s comparable final specifications are not supplied here.

The companies named as MediaTek customers include Oppo, Xiaomi, Samsung, Motorola and Realme, but there is no confirmed device list for the 9600 Pro. Samsung’s recent use of MediaTek flagship silicon in its Galaxy Tab S tablets makes a future Galaxy Tab S13 or Tab S13 Ultra a plausible target, not an announced one. No Samsung product in the supplied material is confirmed to use either new 9600 chip.

MediaTek announced changes to CPU topology, memory, storage, graphics, AI processing, video and multi-SIM connectivity. Until an OEM identifies a product, its cooling system, regional modem configuration and retail price, the 61% CPU-power figure and the 185-plus-fps gaming claim remain silicon-level promises rather than a buying decision.