MediaTek vs. Qualcomm: Dimensity now on par with Snapdragon this year?

The battle between Dimensity and Snapdragon chipsets will get fiercer this 2025!

Can an army of Dimensity ram down the noble kingdom of Snapdragon? Everything’s possible. But in this article, we highlighted the Dimensity aces and how it could become a true competition in the smartphone industry.

1. Performance Prowess

MediaTek’s flagship Dimensity 9400 is going toe-to-toe with the Snapdragon 8 Elite. On AnTuTu, Dimensity 9400 scores 2,647,012 and that’s quite close to 2,800,003 of the Snapdragon 8 Elite.

Although both flagship chipsets can run demanding apps and games, Snapdragon 8 Elite remains superior because of the Adreno GPU, created by the same manufacturer. This is the hardware- and software-level optimization advantage of Qualcomm.

However, the single-brand approach of Snapdragon chipsets created a downside when compared to MediaTek’s approach, expanded below.

2. Overall Efficiency

When it comes to efficiency, it’s easily disputed that Snapdragon is more efficient than Dimensity. But this guaranteed superiority in thermal and power efficiency is no longer holding, particularly on D9400 and SD 8 Elite.

On Reddit, users discussed the findings of a YouTuber who compared the D9400 on the OPPO Find X8 Pro and the SD 8 Elite on the OnePlus 13. SD 8 Elite hands down topped the D9400 on Geekbench, 3DMark, and many more synthetic benchmarks.

Here’s where D9400 won: overall efficiency. It scored lower in favor of stability and in real life, that means prioritizing optimal temperatures and better battery life.

Many think that getting a newer flagship chipset will automatically lead to excellent battery life. But such performance will use such energy to yield that impeccable user experience. 

So, cutting down the performance by 10% to 15% may be adequate to avoid those pesky issues. This is what everyone wants from every chipset – better battery life, optimized performance. 

3. Mid-range Aggression

MediaTek is dominating the mid-range segment with its impressive catalog of mid-range processors. But how?

While we don’t know the exact formula, we can assume this mix and match: mid-range CPU with great clock speed, mid-range GPU with many cores, and decent image signal processor (ISP).

Let’s put the D8400 in the spotlight, the mid-range counterpart of D9400 and is currently powering the POCO X7 Pro with the Ultra chipset variant. It scores 1,602,917 on AnTuTu and features these technical capabilities:

• Mali-G720 GPU with 7 cores
• GPU frequency of 1300MHz
• MediaTek NPU 880
• LPDDR5X RAM
• UFS 4.0 ROM

It has a decent ISP and is limited to just 4K at 60FPS video playback unlike the 4K at 120FPS video playback of SD 8s Gen 3. This is the trade because the D8400 caters to those who demand performance over anything else.

So, mobile gamers and performance hoggers will want to check this one first while camera lovers will have to go for something else. This effectively creates a solid fanbase for mid-range Dimensity CPUs, the reason behind the wildness of the POCO X6 Pro and POCO X7 Pro.

4. Great Value

No one can deny that MediaTek is the more economical choice, enabling brands to maintain low price points. Some brands can launch mid-range performance-centric devices at very attractive prices.

MediaTek’s economical advantage also seeds into its flagship offerings compared to Qualcomm. Make no mistake, Qualcomm’s top-tier offers are incredible but are more exclusive to specific markets and audiences.

With this advantage, flagships like OPPO X8 Pro and vivo X200 have more potential to sell even in low-income markets. They are effective tools to pierce the tight competition in the flagship segment because buyers in these markets will always consider the price no matter what.

A budget-conscious yet flagship first-timer can get the best of everything for quite a bargain.

5. Desires of the Community

MediaTek is not without fault. Among many things, here are two the community expect that MediaTek will provide in the future:

• Source code: Snapdragon chipsets are “open” and this allows custom ROM developers to create personalized firmware for Snapdragon-powered devices. Your MediaTek smartphone is likely forever stuck on its default ROM.
• Emulation: The “closed” nature of MediaTek prevents users from playing games on certain emulators. Emulator developers need to optimize their software but without access to GPU drivers, that’s a difficult thing to do. But we’re not saying you can’t play emulator games because many MediaTek chipsets can run them. Just don’t expect developers to provide full support because even their hands are tied.

Do you think MediaTek will have a better 2025 than Qualcomm?