Leak says Dimensity 9000 could be cheaper than Snapdragon 8 Gen 1

Mediatek announced the Dimensity 9000 processor last week, and it’s positioned as the company’s first full-blown premium flagship processor. The new chipset is expected to duke it out against Qualcomm’s 2022 flagship silicon.

Those expecting similarly cheap Mediatek-powered phones as the Dimensity 1200-powered OnePlus Nord 2 and Realme X7 Max might be disappointed though. Weibo tipster Digital Chat Station has claimed that the Dimensity 9000 is almost double the price of the Dimensity 1200.

The leaker further claims that the new Mediatek chipset is still cheaper than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (tipped to be the name of the next Snapdragon SoC). Of course, cheaper component pricing isn’t a guarantee that phone makers will pass the savings on to consumers. It’s also likely that pricing for the new Mediatek processor will vary by phone brand and the size of the order. But it does raise the possibility that Dimensity 9000 phones could be cheaper than similarly equipped Snapdragon phones next year.

For what it’s worth, Mediatek previously had a reputation for offering cheaper processors than Qualcomm. It’s therefore not a complete surprise to hear that its latest flagship SoC might be cheaper than the newest Snapdragon silicon.

Digital Chat Station also asserts that Mediatek is working on a Dimensity 7000 SoC that uses Cortex-A78 cores and a 5nm process. Redmi general manager Lu Weibing mentioned a “Dimensity 7000” on Weibo this week as well, so it certainly sounds like Mediatek has a less capable chipset due for release soon.

In any event, we’ve contacted Mediatek for comment on the pricing claim and will update the article if/when it gets back to us.