MediaTek’s latest chip is bringing in-game ray tracing to more Android phones

Months after the launch of the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip that has powered some of 2025’s most impressive phones, it looks like the processor has some fresh competition to deal with: the MediaTek Dimensity 9400e. This new mobile platform looks pretty remarkable on paper, especially if you’re looking for a phone with a chipset capable of running your favorite Android games at high settings.

For those who don’t know, MediaTek chips are inside two of the top picks from our guide to the best gaming phones, the Xiaomi 14T Pro and the Poco X7 Pro. Outside of Qualcomm, it’s one of the biggest names in the chip-manufacturing game. Unless you’ve spent the last few years exclusively using Apple or Google Pixel phones, there’s a solid chance you’ve already owned a phone with a MediaTek processor without even knowing it.

From a gaming point of view, the MediaTek Dimensity 9400e sounds like a bit of a beast, with the brand boasting of ray-tracing capabilities, console-level illumination, and elite performance. Combine these claims with the 9400e’s MediaTek Frame Rate Converter, which can reduce power consumption by 40% to keep your phone going for longer, and you’re looking at a very competitive mobile platform.

It’s all made possible by the 9400’s All Big Core architecture, which is made up of an eight-core GPU, featuring four Cortex-X4 super cores and four Cortex-A720 big cores, plus a 12-core Immortalis-G720 GPU. Simply put, it’s the most impressive chip we’ve seen since the introduction of the Snapdragon 8 Elite late last year, and I don’t envy manufacturers who are having to decide between the two when it comes to producing new devices.

Not only are the performance specs impressive, but the Dimensity 9400e’s Wi-Fi 7 functionality should mean that you download some of the picks from our guide to the best Android games faster than ever before. We’ll likely find out just how impressive the chip is before long, with MediaTek teasing that a new phone utilizing the Dimensity 9400e is coming in the next month. We don’t know what phone it is yet, but we’ll keep an eye out for any updates.

For more top-tier tech while you’re here, check out our guides to the best gaming tablets and the best handheld consoles, with a bunch of options to suit all needs and budgets. Or, if you’re concentrating your excitement on the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 release date, get even more pumped with our Nintendo Switch 2 hands-on preview.