Three Phones Share MediaTek’s 2nm Dimensity 9600 Pro. None of Them Uses All of It

MediaTek’s Dimensity 9600 Pro is now inside three phones, and all of them went on sale in China in the last week. It’s one of the first chips built on a 2nm process, the newest and most efficient way to manufacture processors, and it’s MediaTek’s most serious attempt yet to beat Qualcomm and Apple at the very top of the market. Here’s what the chip actually brings, how the three phones differ, and which one makes sense depending on what you care about.

What Makes the Dimensity 9600 Pro Different

Most phone chips mix a few powerful cores with several small, low-power ones, the way a car might have a big engine and a battery for city driving. MediaTek keeps doing the opposite. The Dimensity 9600 Pro uses eight big cores and no small ones, in a 2+3+3 layout:

• 2 Arm C2-Ultra cores at up to 4.55GHz, for bursts of speed
• 3 Arm C2-Pro cores at 4.35GHz
• 3 more Arm C2-Pro cores at 3.1GHz

The idea is that a fast core can finish a job quickly and go back to sleep, which can use less energy than a slow core grinding away. MediaTek claims a 17% faster single-core and 15% faster multi-core CPU than last year’s Dimensity 9500, with multi-core power use down by as much as 61%. The graphics chip, an Arm Mali-G2 Ultra NX, is rated 27% faster at its peak.

The chip also has two AI engines (NPUs, or neural processing units, which handle AI tasks without sending your data to the cloud). MediaTek says the main one can run on-device AI models with up to 30 billion parameters, a measure of how complex a model is. That’s big enough for a capable assistant that works offline.

There’s one more number worth knowing: industry estimates put the chip’s price at about $220 per unit, a record for MediaTek. That helps explain why these phones cost more than MediaTek-powered flagships used to.

The Catch: None of These Phones Use the Chip’s Best Features

On MediaTek’s official spec sheet, the Dimensity 9600 Pro is the first phone chip to support LPDDR6 memory and UFS 5.0 storage. LPDDR6 is the next generation of RAM, the short-term memory your phone uses to keep apps open. UFS 5.0 is the next generation of storage, and MediaTek says it can read and write data about twice as fast.

Yet all three phones on this list use the older LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.1 storage.

This isn’t a scandal. LPDDR6 and UFS 5.0 parts are new, expensive, and in short supply, and memory prices have climbed sharply this year. But it does mean that the “first 2nm phone” headlines only tell part of the story. You’re getting a next-generation processor paired with this generation’s memory and storage.

	vivo X500 Pro	vivo X500 Pro Max	Oppo Find X10 Pro Max
Starting price	$969 (CNY 6,499)	$1,043 (CNY 6,999)	$1,013 (CNY 6,799)
Top price	$1,267 (CNY 8,499), 1TB	$1,341 (CNY 8,999), 1TB	$1,341 (CNY 8,999), 1TB
Display	6.36-inch, 1.5K, 144Hz	6.85-inch, 2K, 144Hz	6.78-inch, 1.5K, 144Hz
Main camera	50MP, 1/1.28-inch, f/1.57	50MP, 1/1.28-inch, f/1.57	200MP, 1/1.3-inch, f/1.5
Telephoto	50MP, 3.5x periscope	200MP, 3.5x periscope	200MP, 3x
Ultrawide	50MP	50MP	200MP
Battery	6,510mAh	8,000mAh	8,000mAh
Charging	90W wired, 40W wireless	90W wired, 40W wireless	80W wired, 50W wireless
Thickness and weight	7.95mm, 192g	7.95mm, 225g	8.4mm, 235g
Water resistance	IP68, IP69	IP68, IP69	IP66, IP68, IP69
Software	OriginOS 7 (Android 17)	OriginOS 7 (Android 17)	ColorOS 17 (Android 17)
China sale date	September 29	September 24	September 24

(The Three Dimensity 9600 Pro Phones Compared)

Will you notice? For everyday use, probably not. UFS 4.1 is already very fast. Where it could matter is in two or three years, when AI features lean harder on memory speed. Our take: the first phones to pair this chip with LPDDR6 will likely be the ones that show what it can really do, and we’d expect those in 2027.

How Fast Is It Really?

Early Geekbench 6 results put the Dimensity 9600 Pro at about 4,100 to 4,300 single-core and 12,600 to 12,750 multi-core. Geekbench is a popular benchmark that runs the same tasks on every phone so you can compare them.

For context, Apple’s A20 Pro scores around 4,700 single-core and 12,700 multi-core. So MediaTek has caught Apple in multi-core work, like exporting video or compiling large files, but still trails by roughly 10% in single-core speed, which affects how snappy apps feel when they open. In early Geekbench 7 runs, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 leads the Dimensity by about 10% in both tests.

The graphics numbers look strong. In the 3DMark Solar Bay Extreme test, which measures gaming graphics with ray tracing (realistic light and reflections), the chip scored 3,029, about 18% ahead of the Dimensity 9500.

What we still don’t know is how well it holds that speed over time. All-big-core designs can run hot, and phones slow down their chips when they overheat. Sustained gaming and long 4K recording will be the real test.

vivo X500 Pro: The Compact Flagship

The X500 Pro is the smallest phone here, with a 6.36-inch screen and a weight of just 192g. That’s rare in 2026, when most flagships have grown past 6.7 inches and 220g.

You don’t give up much for the smaller size. It gets the same 1/1.28-inch main camera as the Pro Max, the same 50MP ultrawide, and the same 90W charging. Its telephoto is a 50MP Sony LYTIA 610 periscope with 3.5x zoom, which is excellent for portraits even if it can’t match the Pro Max at long range.

The 6,510mAh battery is impressive for a phone this size. For comparison, the much larger iPhone 18 Pro Max holds about 5,400 to 5,600mAh.

Best for: people who want a flagship that fits in one hand and a pocket.

vivo X500 Pro Max: The Zoom Specialist

The Pro Max’s headline feature is a 200MP periscope telephoto built on Samsung’s 1/1.4-inch HP0 sensor. That sensor is bigger than the main camera on many midrange phones, and it sits behind a 3.5x lens. With 200MP of resolution, vivo can crop in further and still keep detail, which is why it advertises lossless-quality zoom at 4x and beyond.

It also supports a clip-on Zeiss teleconverter for a 400mm-equivalent view, and the top Creator’s Package bundles the gear for $1,937 (CNY 12,999). The 2K screen is the sharpest of the three, with peak brightness around 4,500 nits, and it shares the X500 Pro’s 7.95mm thickness despite a much bigger 8,000mAh battery. The telephoto sensor’s unusual pixel structure is part of why vivo’s zoom keeps winning comparisons.

Best for: anyone who shoots concerts, wildlife, sports, or travel, where zoom matters more than wide shots.

Oppo Find X10 Pro Max: Three 200MP Cameras

Oppo took a different route. Instead of one standout lens, it uses 200MP sensors on all three rear cameras: main, ultrawide, and 3x telephoto. The main sensor measures 1/1.3 inches, and all three cameras can record 8K video and 4K at 120fps in Dolby Vision.

The advantage is consistency. When you switch lenses, colors and detail stay closer, which matters a lot for video. The 200MP ultrawide also means wide shots and close-up macros hold up better than on phones with 50MP ultrawides.

The trade-offs are weight and thickness. At 235g and 8.4mm, it’s the heaviest phone here. Charging is 80W wired, slightly slower than Vivo, but it has faster 50W wireless charging. Its IP66 rating, on top of IP68 and IP69, adds protection against strong water jets from any direction.

Best for: people who shoot a lot of video and want every lens to look the same.

Which Dimensity 9600 Pro Phone Should You Buy?

Since all three share a chip, speed won’t decide this. Here’s how we’d split it:

• Pick the vivo X500 Pro if you want a small phone with flagship cameras and a big battery for its size. At $969, it’s also the cheapest.
• Pick the vivo X500 Pro Max if zoom is your top priority. Its 200MP periscope is the best long-range camera on this list.
• Pick the Oppo Find X10 Pro Max if you want the most balanced camera system, especially for video, and don’t mind the extra weight.

If you’re outside China, timing matters. vivo has pointed to a global launch on October 28 for the X500 Pro series, while Oppo has confirmed a global rollout without a date. None of the three is expected in the US. Chinese prices also won’t survive the trip. Global versions of Chinese flagships usually cost noticeably more, and sometimes ship with smaller batteries.

The Dimensity 9600 Pro is the closest MediaTek has come to a clean win at the top end, and it finally matches Apple in multi-core speed. But these first three phones are really camera phones that happen to share a chip. Choose based on the lenses and the size, not the processor.

FAQs

Is the Dimensity 9600 Pro better than the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6?

Not in raw speed. Early tests show Qualcomm about 10% ahead in CPU benchmarks. MediaTek’s strengths are efficiency claims and strong graphics gains.

Does the regular vivo X500 use the Dimensity 9600 Pro?

No. The base model uses a different Dimensity 9600-series chip and focuses on battery life. The vivo X500‘s 7,500mAh battery and surprise chip make it a cheaper way into the lineup if you don’t need the Pro cameras.

How does the Find X10 Pro Max compare with the Xiaomi 18 Pro Max?

Both use 200MP main cameras and large batteries, but Xiaomi runs Qualcomm’s chip and adds a small rear screen. Oppo built the better camera, but Xiaomi built the better phone for Mac owners, so your laptop may decide it.

Can the vivo X500 Pro Max compete with the Galaxy S26 Ultra?

On paper, yes. It’s cheaper in China and has a bigger battery and stronger zoom. But Samsung offers US availability, seven years of updates, and the S Pen. 

Is there a cheaper Oppo flagship with similar features?

Yes. The Oppo Find X10 E costs about $746 and keeps much of the Find X10 design and software. A sibling model priced only about $75 away complicates the choice, so compare both before buying.

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