Hardwired
In Hardwired, AC Senior Editor Harish Jonnalagadda delves into all things hardware, including phones, audio products, storage servers, and networking gear.
I get to use over 75 phones in a given year, and an overwhelming majority of those devices are powered by Qualcomm. Interestingly enough, the phones I used the most in 2025 featured the Dimensity 9400, and it goes to show the amount of progress MediaTek made over the last two years.
Qualcomm is still in a dominant position in the high-end category, but MediaTek netted significant design wins, notably the Vivo X200 Pro and Find X8 Pro. These are two of the best camera-centric phones available today, and they’re both powered by the Dimensity 9400.
Even though MediaTek is using regular Arm cores — Qualcomm switched to a custom design this year — there really isn’t much of a difference. The X200 Pro takes the best photos of any phone I used until now, and it does a great job in demanding games. It holds up incredibly well in mundane situations as well, and I didn’t see any differences when using on-device AI utilities.
With MediaTek also shifting to the 3nm node, there’s no difference in efficiency either, and if anything, I got better battery life out of the X200 Pro than Qualcomm-based devices with a similar battery size. That isn’t to say that Qualcomm is lagging behind; the 8 Elite is clearly one of the fastest mobile platforms available today, and it’s good to see MediaTek offering an alternative.
It’s clear that Chinese manufacturers want to use both MediaTek and Qualcomm designs in their phones; while the X200 Pro has the Dimensity 9400, Vivo’s X200 Ultra is powered by Qualcomm, and the same is true of the Find X8 Ultra as well. However, these devices are limited to China, and that continues to be annoying.
What I’m trying to say is that MediaTek is somehow able to catch up to Qualcomm in the high-end category, and that’s great news for the industry as a whole. With Samsung failing to make ground with Exynos and Huawei severely hobbled by trade restrictions, there is a distinct dearth of rivalry when it comes to mobile platforms, and it’s good to see MediaTek utilizing its momentum to rival Qualcomm in this area.
MediaTek is making decent inroads into the U.S. as well, something it has struggled to do in the past. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S10 tablets are powered by the Dimensity 9300+, and while these devices won’t sell in as many numbers as the brand’s phones, the fact that the manufacturer is using MediaTek-based designs globally is a huge endorsement.
That said, MediaTek still doesn’t have a foothold with foldables — all the foldables I used in 2025 are powered by Qualcomm. We may get to see Chinese manufacturers using next-gen Dimensity platforms, but that may be a few years away. It’s evident that MediaTek wants to continue making headway in the high-end and shore up its lead in the mid-range categories in the interim.
Another limiting factor in the past was that phones powered by MediaTek would take longer to get software updates, but that just isn’t the case now. My Vivo X100 Pro made the switch to Android 15 at the same time as Qualcomm-based rivals, and MediaTek is working closely with major brands to ensure it provides the requisite drivers to roll out updates faster.
Ultimately, it’s good to see there are two great choices of platforms for Android flagships, and I want MediaTek to continue its momentum with the Dimensity 9500.
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