MediaTek Dimensity 8500 is announced, featuring a 25% GPU boost

MediaTek has finally lifted the veil on its latest technological wonder, the Dimensity 8500, at its product launch event in 2026. Dubbed a “light flagship” challenger, this SoC represents more than a simple update, as it’s an outright attack on the upper mid-range with its enormous graphics performance boost and sophisticated all-big-core design. I’ve been following these leaks for a couple of weeks now, and it’s good to see that the numbers are indeed true: MediaTek is doubling down on optimization while still offering plenty of power. Whether you’re a gamer or a mobile photographer, the Dimensity 8500 seems to be the engine that will power the best “flagship killers” of the year.

TL;DR:

• Performance Jump: Features a 7% CPU and a massive 25% GPU performance increase over the previous Dimensity 8400.
• Gaming First: Debuts hardware-level ray tracing and 51% faster AI speech-to-text in titles like Honor of Kings.
• AI Smartness: Includes new Dimensity AI Ultra-Clear Telephoto and AI Magic Removal for professional-grade photo editing.
• Efficiency: Built on TSMC’s N4P (4nm) process, reducing peak power consumption by 20%.

What is so special about the Dimensity 8500?

Mediatek is further honing their “All-Big-Core” approach with their Dimensity 8500. Based on their successful TSMC N4P 4nm process, their CPU setup consists of an 8-core Cortex-A725 design. Here, we notice a flagship core clocked at 3.4GHz with three performance-optimized cores at 3.2GHz, alongside four The true hero in this regard is the Mali-G720 MC8 GPU. The company claims there’s 25% better graphics processing power and a reduction in power consumption by 20%. The latter point is very important if you plan on playing games on this device and don’t want it to be a pocket warmer during long gaming sessions.

Important Specifications at a Glance:

How Does AI Affect The Experience?

We’re also seeing a lot of interest in “Agentic AI” in 2023. The Dimensity 8500 chipset brings the Dimensity AI Semantic Segmentation Engine, as well as enhanced camera features in the form of AI Reflection/Glare Removal, which enables the taking of photos through glass or in bright lighting conditions, with the chip being able to “clean” the photo in real time. Gamers will also enjoy the partnership with Honor of Kings.

With the NPU handling speech recognition processing, recognition speed is now 51% faster. It enables fast and accurate communication during gaming without consuming CPU and GPU resources, keeping your frame rates consistent.

What may happen to Dimensity lines?

The Dimensity 8500 has already had a quiet launch in the Honor Power 2 in China (priced from around $385 USD), but it is with its entrance onto the global scene that the fun truly begins. We are likely to see it feature in a new range of devices from OPPO, vivo, and Xiaomi. MediaTek also showcased Dimensity 9500s, a 3nm flagship-level cousin, but for the average consumer, 8500 offers the “sweet spot” in terms of price and performance.

Whether you want a smartphone that can run 2026’s most resource-hungry applications without breaking the bank at $1,000, this processor is one to watch out for.

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