Dimensity 9500, Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 to Launch Next Week; Exynos 2600 Coming Later

The smartphone world is gearing up for the arrival of two advanced processors next week: Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and MediaTek’s Dimensity 9500. These chips will power flagship smartphones from several brands, competing with Samsung’s upcoming Exynos 2600. Sure, it will be interesting to see how they perform in real-world.

Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and Dimensity 9500 chip will go official next week

We already know that Qualcomm will debut Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip during the Snapdragon Summit 2025. The event will run from September 23 to 25 in Hawaii. Surprisingly, its rival MediaTek today announced that its flagship SoC, likely the Dimensity 9500, will debut on September 22. So, the competition in the chip market is heating up.

Rumors suggest that the Dimensity 9500 will feature a 1 + 3 + 4 CPU setup: one high-performance Travis core at 4.21 GHz, three Alto cores at 3.5 GHz, and four Gelas cores at 2.7 GHz. The first two cores belong to ARM’s X9 family, while the last is part of the enhanced A7 series. Speaking of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, the chip will use Oryon CPU cores, with two prime cores at 4.61 GHz and six performance cores at 3.63 GHz. Both chips will use TSMC’s cutting-edge 3nm manufacturing process.

We’ll learn the detailed specifications of these powerful chips next week. Meanwhile, Samsung is also gearing up to introduce its next-generation Exynos 2600 chip. Built on the company’s own 2nm node, the SoC will feature a 10-core layout with one prime core at 3.8 GHz, three performance cores at 3.26 GHz, and six efficiency cores at 2.76 GHz. The Exynos 2600 will reportedly enter mass production as early as this month, suggesting the chip may go official later this year.

There’s chatter that the upcoming Galaxy S26 Pro and S26 Edge will adopt the new Exynos chipset, at least in select regions. As for the Galaxy S26 Ultra, the Korean firm may use a customized Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 “for Galaxy” chip, with the prime cores running at 4.74 GHz. Stay tuned for more details.