Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite vs. MediaTek Dimenity 9400 vs. Google Tensor G4: What is the best mobile chipset of 2025?

It has been a particularly interesting year in the mobile industry, and has earned considerable benefits from the offerings provided by Qualcomm and MediaTek. Qualcomm switched to a completely custom design ten years later. As a result, the Snapdragon 8 Elite has earned generational benefits from the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, which is great.

Neither MediaTek sits vaguely, and the Dimenity 9400 has a notable design victory, and performs far better. In contrast, Google’s decision to play safely with the Tensor G4 feels shortsighted, and the Pixel 9 Pro XL does not bring any meaningful upgrades in this area.

I’ve used more than 12 phones with the latest chipsets in the last three months. Now it’s time to find out how they differ. Here’s a quick overview of what’s new this year before you reach the benchmark. Obviously, the Snapdragon 8 Elite is different from what you’ve seen in the past, so you should start with Qualcomm.

Qualcomm went to a completely custom CPU design, similar to what Apple does with its own silicon, allowing chip vendors to tweak the platform in a substantial amount. So it’s no surprise that the platform has the best single and multicore CPU scores of anything I’ve tested, surpassing the iPhone 16 Pro Max, which itself is huge.

The profits on the GPU are not that noticeable. And while it continues to be one of the best, it doesn’t have an oversized lead. Thankfully, MediaTek can also deliver great platforms, and the Dimenity 9400 has an attractive upgrade. Although we use stock arm cores, the decision to exclusively utilize MediaTek’s large cores makes a clear difference when it comes to performance. MediaTek has been doing this for two years and has nailed the basics.

Interestingly, the Dimenity 9400 GPU can maintain its own GPU against what Qualcomm offers. That hasn’t been the case in the last few years, and I’ve even managed to score better on the Immortalis-G925 than on the Adreno 830. area.

There’s not much to talk about tensor G4, as Google uses the same core configuration and manufacturing node as the G3. Qualcomm and MediaTek switched to 3nm nodes, which are more efficient, but Google still uses 4nm nodes and the Pixel 9 Pro XL doesn’t have the same battery life at all.

Asus’ Zenfone 12 Ultra is a technically mainstream mobile phone, yet has excellent thermal solutions, making it a Qualcomm baseline. I highlighted the Dimenity 9400 using the Vivo X200 Pro. The Find X8 Pro uses the same platform, but I felt that the X200 Pro did a better job with the game, so that’s what I use. Also, on Google, the Pixel 9 Pro XL has the best thermal management system on the Pixel 9 series, so that’s what I used.

When it comes to CPUs, it’s clear that Qualcomm has a clear advantage this year. Custom design allowed devices like the Zenfone 12 Ultra and Honor Magic 7 Pro to net the best scores on Geekbench 6 single-core and multi-core workloads. It’s just as great work, faster than last year, but not surpassing Qualcomm.

As you can imagine, the Pixel 9 Pro XL is behind its rivals and posts unmeasured scores. The OnePlus 13R based on Snapdragon8Gen 3 does a better job. The trouble is, it’s also a story similar to the GPU, and the device isn’t nearing the 2025 flagship. That said, I did not see any slowing that is regularly used. If so, Google has optimized it with the Android 15 update, and the Pixel 9 Pro XL has far better liquidity than last year.

The biggest problem is that the 9 Pro XL doesn’t offer the same level of performance in demanding games. There is no stable frame rate and it will be slotted immediately. Also, until Qualcomm and MediaTek’s 2024 products, there will be far fewer modern platforms.

Google says it has deployed device AI as a differentiator for the tensor G4, but in this area, it doesn’t do anywhere, just like Qualcomm. In Geekbench’s AI workloads, there are thinner leads than the Dimenity 9400, but the Zenfone 12 Ultra once again has a clear edge, with Qualcomm’s NPU clearly throbbing.

When it comes to games, the Dimenity 9400’s Immortalis-G925 provided the best scores in 3DMark’s Wild Life Extreme and Solar Bay tests. That said, the platform tended to throttle aggressively, and the X200 Pro had a stability score of just 49% on the demanding steel Nomad Light Endurance Run. In contrast, Qualcomm-powered devices managed at least 70% scores, with most devices reaching up to 90% in the same test.

The drawback of limited throttling is that Qualcomm-based devices tend to get hot. The X200 Pro rose to up to 44 degrees Celsius after the extended gaming session, while the Zenfone 12 Ultra hit 46 degrees and the Nubia Z70 Ultra rose to 59 degrees.

The synthesis tests don’t reveal the entire story, but it’s clear that both Qualcomm and MediaTek did an amazing job this year, as they used these devices for so long. We are pleased to be able to offer MediaTek a product that will compete with Qualcomm in the high-end category. This has not been in the past few years.

Another interesting thing is the ISP. Qualcomm continues to make money in this area, but MediaTek has found the X200 Pro and the X8 Pro, offering the best camera packages of 2025. Of course, camera hardware and tuning make a significant difference, but the ISP is a Dimenity 9400 that is an integral part of the package, and MediaTek has done everything right.

The situation is similar to the battery life. The key topic is the introduction of silicon carbon battery technology, and when it comes to battery life, the Dimenity 9400-equipped devices have a clear edge. The 6000mAh cells on the OnePlus 13 and Vivo X200 Pro are identical, but the X200 Pro lasted longer in my tests and provided an additional hour of screen-on-time.

I did not do quantitative battery tests, but use across the device has barely changed, and the two phones that provided the best battery life are the X200 Pro and the Find X8 Pro. MediaTek did an outstanding job in design in 2025, while MediaTek is seeing a better design victory, while Qualcomm continues to dominate the North American market. That status quo will not change anytime soon, but what’s refreshing is that MediaTek has a viable alternative to the Dimenity 9400 in other global markets.