AI is no longer just a buzzword in smartphones—it’s now a key part of how devices handle everything from voice commands to photo processing and even on-device generative AI.  

At the heart of this transformation is the smartphone’s processor, or system-on-chip (SoC). They pack the raw power to run these specialized AI features effortlessly. So let’s delve into some of the leading smartphone chips driving AI functionalities in 2025.

Apple A18 Pro

Apple doesn’t market its AI capabilities as aggressively as Qualcomm or MediaTek, but it has been quietly integrating AI into its chips for years. Take the M1 chip, for example. Launched back in 2020—before all the hype about AI—it can run Apple Intelligence effortlessly.

In fact, the M1 was Apple’s first real step into AI silicon, with an NPU (Neural Processing Unit) designed to handle machine learning tasks. But here’s the weird part: why iPhones from 2020 and later don’t support Apple Intelligence then?

Turns out, it’s all about hardware. In an interview, Apple’s Craig Federighi explained that RAM plays a key role in powering Apple Intelligence, and every device that supports these AI features has at least 8GB of RAM. And guess what? iPhone 15 Pro series is Apple’s first smartphone with 8GB of RAM. 

That brings us to Apple’s A18 Pro, the company’s most powerful AI chip yet. It continues Apple’s focus on efficiency and deep software integration rather than just raw AI performance numbers.

The Neural Engine in the A18 Pro now pushes over 35 trillion operations per second (TOPS)—a significant upgrade from 35 TOPS from last year’s A17 Pro. 

However, unlike Android chipmakers, Apple doesn’t allow developers to access its Neural Engine as freely. That means third-party apps can’t take full advantage of its AI capabilities—at least, not yet. And as more apps embrace on-device AI, that walled garden approach might start to feel like a limitation.

Snapdragon 8 Elite

Qualcomm is leading the AI hardware race in the Android world, and its latest contender is the Snapdragon 8 Elite.

The 8 Elite packs what Qualcomm calls an AI Engine which is a comprehensive platform that includes multiple components working in tandem to deliver powerful AI performance. The AI Engine integrates the Hexagon NPU, CPU, GPU, and the Qualcomm Sensing Hub, combining their capabilities to handle diverse AI workloads efficiently.

The Hexagon NPU takes the load off the CPU and GPU, ensuring that AI features—like real-time translations or on-device photo enhancements—don’t slow the phone down. This allows AI-powered tasks to run in the background without impacting overall performance.

Qualcomm also integrates hardware-level security into its AI chip. The Secure Processing Unit works with the NPU to encrypt data, which is crucial as AI-powered assistants handle more personal information.

But it’s not just about AI. With the 8 Elite, Qualcomm also ditched the standard ARM Cortex cores in favor of its custom Oryon cores. The change gives Qualcomm an edge in terms of performance and efficiency. 

However, the real advantage of Qualcomm chips is the flexibility it provides to phone manufacturers. Unlike Apple’s tightly controlled AI ecosystem, Qualcomm’s approach gives manufacturers like Samsung, OnePlus, and Xiaomi the freedom to implement AI features in their own way.

Google Tensor G4

Google’s Tensor G4 is less about raw power and more about AI-driven experiences. While it doesn’t match Qualcomm or MediaTek in terms of TOPS performance, it’s optimized for Google’s software, making it a key part of the Pixel 9 series.

Google designed the Tensor G4 with DeepMind to ensure it can run future AI models efficiently. This includes better memory bandwidth and improved power management. One of the biggest upgrades is multimodal Gemini Nano, allowing on-device AI to process multiple types of input simultaneously.

Tensor G4 can handle up to 45 tokens per second—meaning it can break down and process words, images, or voice inputs much faster than its predecessor. While that doesn’t make it the most powerful AI chip, it does make Google’s AI-powered features feel more responsive.

But Tensor’s biggest advantage is direct software integration. Google controls both the hardware and software, allowing Pixel phones to get AI features that other Android devices might not see for months (or ever). The trade-off? Tensor chips still lag behind in raw performance, so while they’re great for AI, they aren’t the best for gaming or high-performance tasks.

MediaTek Dimensity 9400

MediaTek’s Dimensity 9400 is its most ambitious AI chip yet, and on paper, it’s ahead of the competition. It boasts over 50 TOPS of AI performance, technically beating both Apple and Qualcomm.

At the heart of this AI performance is MediaTek’s 8th Gen NPU. It’s the first mobile chip to support on-device LoRA training and high-quality video generation. That means AI models can adapt to individual users in real-time, rather than relying entirely on cloud processing.

MediaTek is also pushing something called the Dimensity Agentic AI Engine (DAE). It’s designed to make AI-powered apps more dynamic by allowing them to interact with third-party software and cloud services more seamlessly. This could reduce development time for AI applications to make advanced AI features more accessible across different apps.

 Globally, premium phones continue to favor Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips over Dimensity. The new Dimensity 9500 is mostly found in Vivo, Oppo, and Xiaomi devices, leaving MediaTek with limited reach in the flagship space. So we hope that more brands start taking MediaTek seriously at the high end.

Which AI Chip Is the Best?

Right now, AI in smartphones is still more about background improvements rather than game-changing new features. But as on-device AI models become more capable, having a smartphone with strong AI hardware could become more important.

For now, Snapdragon 8 Elite and Tensor G4 offer the most visible AI experiences, while Apple and MediaTek are pushing AI performance in their own ways. Whether any of this translates into a better smartphone experience depends on how software takes advantage of it.

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The competition among major chipmakers is more fierce than ever, with all of them bringing massive upgrades every year to their latest chips. Recently, MediaTek unveiled the Dimensity 9400 with significant performance and efficiency improvements. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite, featuring Oryon cores for the first time in a mobile chipset, shatters benchmark records like anything. We also have Apple A18 Pro, powering the latest iPhone 16 series.

These three chips are the most powerful mobile chipsets from their respective brands. But how do they stack up against each other? Let’s put them through different benchmarks to see which one holds the crown.

Let’s begin with the spec sheet:

Snapdragon 8 Elite vs Dimensity 9400 vs Apple A18 Pro: Benchmark

Geekbench results

Geekbench runs a device through a series of tests to measure its CPU capabilities. The benchmarking platform outputs single-core and multi-core performance results.

The Snapdragon 8 Elite and Apple A18 Pro have similar single-core performance, while the Dimensity 9400 lags behind both. However, in the multi-core test, the Dimensity chip climbs ahead of the A18 Pro but falls short of the Snapdragon 8 Elite.

As per Geekbench 6 scores, the Snapdragon 8 Elite has the most powerful CPU of all three, followed by Dimensity 9400 and Apple A18 Pro. 

AnTuTu results

AnTuTu is a popular benchmarking tool for measuring the CPU, GPU, UX, and memory performance of a device. The total score represents the overall strength. One thing to note here is that the AnTuTu for Android runs on Vulkan API, while the iOS version runs on Metal API.

The Dimensity 9400 rocks the AnTuTu chart, though the Snapdragon 8 Elite isn’t far behind. The Apple A18 Pro, however, has a significantly weaker AnTuTu score than the other two. 

Snapdragon 8 Elite vs Dimensity 9400 vs Apple A18 Pro: Key differences

CPU

The Snapdragon 8 Elite and Dimensity 9400 have eight CPU cores, whereas the Apple A18 Pro only has six. The Snapdragon 8 Elite is a game-changer chipset for Qualcomm as it’s equipped with an in-house Oryon CPU, the first time on a Snapdragon chip, and the results have been impressive so far. 

The 8 Elite’s CPU has two Oryon cores clocked at 4.32GHz and six Oryon cores at 3.53GHz. The Dimensity 9400’s CPU architecture consists of a Cortex-X925 large-core running at 3.63GHz, three Cortex-X4 performance cores running at 3.3GHz, and the remaining four are Cortex-A720 clocked at 2.4GHz.

Apple A18 Pro’s CPU has two custom-designed high-performance cores running at 4.04GHz and six custom-designed power-efficiency cores running at 2.2GHz. 

GPU

The Snapdragon 8 Elite ships with Adreno 830 GPU; Dimensity 9400 gets Immortalis-G925 MC12; and the A18 Pro gets a 6-core GPU.

The GPU inside the 8 Elite chip brings support for Unreal Engine 5 with Nanite for a film-quality 3D environment for immersive gaming. It comes with a full suite of Snapdragon Elite Gaming features, such as Qualcomm Adaptive Performance Engine 4.0, real-time hardware-accelerated ray racing, Snapdragon Game Super Resolution 2.0, and Adreno Frame Motion Engine 2.0.

The Dimensity 9400’s 12-core GPU aims to match desktop PC-grade ray tracing capabilities. It brings MediaTek HyperEngine gaming technologies, such as MediaTek Adaptive Gaming Technology 3.0, MediaTek Frame Rate Converter, and HyperEngine’s Super Resolution, for a smooth gaming experience.

The A18 Pro has a 6-core GPU that is 20% faster than its predecessor, the A17 Pro and delivers 2x faster hardware ray tracing. The Snapdragon 8 Elite’s GPU is 40% faster, and the Dimensity 9400’s GPU is 41% faster than their predecessors.

Connectivity

All three chips have an integrated 5G modem with many dissimilarities. The Snapdragon 8 Elite and Apple A18 Pro have a peak download speed of 10Gbps, which is 7.3Gbps on the Dimensity 9400. All these have Wi-Fi 7 support. However, the 8 Elite supports the newer Bluetooth 6.0 standard, while the other two support Bluetooth 5.4.

AI capabilities

For on-device AI tasks, the Snapdragon 8 Elite has a hexagon NPU that delivers 45% better AI performance than its predecessor. The Dimensity 9400 gets the AI job done through MediaTek NPU 890, which offers 80% faster LLM prompt performance while being 35% more power efficient compared to its predecessor.

The 8th gen NPU inside the Dimensity 9400 is the world’s first high-quality on-device video generation and the world’s first on-device LoRA training, MediaTek claims.

The Apple A18 Pro has a 16-core neural engine that can perform 35 trillion operations per second (TOPS).

Snapdragon 8 Elite vs Dimensity 9400 vs Apple A18 Pro: Final words

Snapdragon 8 Elite, Dimensity 9400, and Apple 18 Pro are the most powerful smartphone chips, offering a smoother experience no matter how demanding the apps/games are. They can handle the needs of most users.

On benchmarks, the Snapdragon 8 Elite outperforms the other two. In some tests, the Dimensity 9400 leads the race. The Apple A18 Pro also shows strong performance on Geekbench. However, the AnTuTu is significantly lower compared to the other two.

In the end, I’d say the choice comes down to your preferred ecosystem. If you’re highly invested in the Apple ecosystem, Apple A18 Pro makes a lot of sense. For Android, I’d prefer the Snapdragon 8 Elite over Dimensity 9400.

Snapdragon 8 Elite phones:

• Xiaomi 15 (review)
• Xiaomi 15 Pro
• iQOO 13
• OnePlus 13 (review)
• Realme GT7 Pro (review)

MediaTek Dimensity 9400 phones:

• Vivo X200
• Vivo X200 Pro (hands-on)
• Vivo X200 Pro mini
• Oppo Find X8
• Oppo Find X8 Pro

Apple A18 Pro phones:

• Apple iPhone 16 Pro
• Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max

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In a recent performance comparison by Golden Reviewer, MediaTek‘s latest flagship chipset, the Dimensity 9400, has demonstrated impressive GPU capabilities, potentially setting a new standard in graphics performance for flagship Android devices.

Although MediaTek has generally trailed behind Apple’s A-series chips and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon lineup in overall performance, the Dimensity 9400 is proving to be a fierce competitor in the GPU arena. The 12-core Arm Immortalis-G925 GPU embedded in the Dimensity 9400 chipset showcased both power and efficiency in various GPU tests, surpassing Apple’s A18 Pro GPU in specific metrics.

Detailed breakdown of Golden Reviewer’s tests

The tests examined the Dimensity 9400’s graphics performance against Apple’s A18 Pro, focusing on 3DMark benchmarks. In the Solar Bay ray-tracing test, the Dimensity 9400 scored an impressive 11,817 points while drawing 11.4 watts of power. In comparison, Apple’s A18 Pro recorded a lower score of 8,587 while consuming slightly less power at 11.1 watts. This gives the Dimensity 9400 an approximate 30% efficiency edge over the A18 Pro—a remarkable feat, especially in a competitive landscape dominated by Apple’s GPU prowess.

Other tests yielded similar results. On 3DMark’s Steel Nomad Light and WildLife Extreme tests, the Dimensity 9400 consistently scored higher than the A18 Pro while drawing less power, establishing around a 40% efficiency advantage. These outcomes underscore the Dimensity 9400’s potential to outperform the A18 Pro in high-intensity graphics tasks, making it a solid choice for gaming and other GPU-demanding applications on Android devices.

Additional Information on the Dimensity 9400 and A18 Pro

The Dimensity 9400’s GPU enhancements represent a significant leap from its predecessor, the Dimensity 9300. Its 12-core Arm Immortalis-G925 GPU offers a 40% boost in ray-tracing performance and a 41% increase in peak performance. Additionally, it integrates MediaTek’s HyperEngine technology, designed to enhance super-resolution and visual quality, particularly for gaming. This combination of improvements makes the Dimensity 9400 a top-tier choice in the premium Android market, catering to users who prioritize high-quality graphics and efficient performance.

Apple’s A18 Pro, while outperformed in these specific GPU tests, is still a formidable chipset. Its six-core GPU boasts a nearly 40% improvement over the previous iPhone 15 series, enhancing its ability to handle gaming and computational photography. Despite the Dimensity 9400’s lead in the GPU benchmarks, the A18 Pro remains competitive, particularly when it comes to overall performance, including CPU efficiency and multitasking capabilities.

To dive into a detailed comparison between the Dimensity 9400 and Apple A18 Pro, refer to our in-depth analysis of the two chips.

(Source)

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The performance gap between Android phones and iPhones is almost blurred as Qualcomm takes on Apple with its most powerful Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset. The newest Snapdragon chip promises huge performance and efficiency upgrades, and so does Apple’s A18 Pro, which powers the iPhone 16 Pro models. But how do they stack up against each other? Let’s put them through benchmark tests to find out which one holds the crown.

Let’s look at the spec sheet first for a quick overview:

[Note: We tested the Realme GT7 Pro (powered by Snapdragon 8 Elite) and iPhone 16 Pro Max (powered by A18 Pro) for benchmark results.]

Snapdragon 8 Elite vs Apple A18 Pro: Geekbench score

Geekbench runs a device through a series of tests to measure its CPU capabilities. The benchmarking platform outputs single-core and multi-core performance results.

Here’s how the two chips performed:

In the single-core test, the Snapdragon 8 Elite and Apple A18 Pro obtained similar scores. However, there’s a clear gap in the multi-core test, where the Snapdragon chip is ahead of the A18 Pro with over 15% higher score.

Snapdragon 8 Elite vs Apple A18 Pro: AnTuTu score

AnTuTu is popular benchmarking tool for measuring CPU, GPU, UX, and memory of a devices. The total score represents the overall strength. One thing to note here is that the AnTuTu for Android runs on Vulkan API, while the AnTuTu for iOS runs on Metal API.

The Snapdragon 8 Elite is a clear AnTuTu winner, leaving the Apple A18 Pro behind by a significant margin. Notably, the Snapdragon chip did a lot better in terms of GPU and memory performance.

Snapdragon 8 Elite vs Apple A18 Pro: 3DMark score

3DMark is a popular platform for GPU testing. It has a variety of benchmarking tools for testing various gaming capabilities devices. For this comparison, we chose the WildLife Extreme Stress (for testing sustained performance under heavy graphical loads) and Solar Bay (for evaluating ray tracing performance).

3DMark WildLife Extreme Stress Test

The powerful Adreno 830 GPU inside the Snapdragon 8 Elite did an excellent job in 3DMark tests compared to the 6-core GPU inside the A18 Pro. In the WildLife Extreme Stress Test, the Snapdragon chip resulted in 82.4% stability, while the A18 Pro was only 68.1%. The temperatures are almost similar, though.

3DMark Solar Bay

The Snapdragon 8 Elite also dominates the Solar Bay charts. It achieved 40.68 FPS (average), while the A18 Pro got 30.6 FPS (average). The former chip has a higher overall score and became less hot than the A18 Pro (it also depends on the cooling solution integrated into a device).

Snapdragon 8 Elite vs Apple A18 Pro: Key differences

Snapdragon 8 Elite is Qualcomm’s first chipset to feature custom Oryon CPU cores, and the results are impressive so far. It’s an octa-core chip, which includes two large cores clocked at 4.32GHz and six mid-cores at 3.53GHz. Apple A18 Pro, on the other hand, has a six-core CPU: two large cores clocked at 4.04GHz and four efficiency cores at 2.2GHz.

Not only does the Snapdragon 8 Elite have two additional CPU cores, but it also has a higher peak CPU frequency of 4.32GHz (vs. 4.04GHz on the A18 Pro). For graphics rendering, the Snapdragon chip has an Adreno 830 GPU, and the Apple A18 Pro has a 6-core GPU. Both are high-performance GPUs with hardware-accelerated ray tracing support.

The two chips have powerful NPUs: a hexagon NPU with multimodal Gen AI support on the Snapdragon 8 Elite and a 16-core neural engine with support for 35 trillion operations per second (TOPS) on the A18 Pro. They pack similar connectivity features, though, except for a higher Bluetooth standard on the Snapdragon 8 Elite.

Snapdragon 8 Elite vs Apple A18 Pro: Final words

The Apple A18 Pro and Snapdragon 8 Elite are the best smartphone chips. Both feature strong CPUs that can easily handle all your processing needs, and GPUs are good enough for buttery smooth gaming for a long session. They also have integrated powerful AI chips. However, when it comes to benchmark results, the Snapdragon 8 Elite leads the chart.

Although the Snapdragon 8 Elite has an edge over the Apple A18 Pro on benchmarks, choosing one really boils down to your preferred ecosystem. If you’re highly invested into the Apple ecosystem, the A18 Pro would be a better choice; otherwise, go for the Snapdragon 8 Elite.

Snapdragon 8 Elite phones:

• Xiaomi 15 (review)
• Xiaomi 15 Pro
• iQOO 13
• OnePlus 13 (review)
• Realme GT7 Pro (review)

Apple A18 Pro phones:

• Apple iPhone 16 Pro
• Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max

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MediaTek recently unveiled the Dimensity 9400 as its most powerful chipset for mobile devices. The upcoming Vivo X200 series and Oppo Find X8 series will feature the D9400 SoC. The chipset has managed to breach the 3 million mark on AnTuTu, showcasing its remarkable performance. How does it fare against the Apple A18 Pro, which powers models like the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max? This post provides a detailed comparison of these two processors, examining their performance, AI capabilities, power efficiency, and overall impact on the smartphone market.

Performance and Architecture

The MediaTek Dimensity 9400 is built on TSMC’s second-generation 3nm process, featuring an impressive array of cores: one Arm Cortex-X925 core operating at over 3.62GHz, three Cortex-X4 cores, and four Cortex-A720 cores. This configuration offers a 35 percent increase in single-core performance and a 28 percent boost in multi-core performance compared to its predecessor, the Dimensity 9300.

On the other hand, Apple’s A18 Pro is also manufactured using TSMC’s 3nm technology, with a six-core CPU composed of two performance cores clocked at 4.05GHz and four efficiency cores. Apple’s design focuses on balancing power and efficiency, delivering a processor that is both powerful and energy efficient. Benchmarks tests suggest that the A18 Pro can surpass the Dimensity 9400 in single-core performance. However, in multi-core scenarios, the 8-core design of the Dimensity 9400 might give it an edge.

Graphics and Gaming

When it comes to graphics and gaming, both chipsets push the boundaries of mobile GPU performance. The Dimensity 9400 features a 12-core Arm Immortalis-G925 GPU, providing a 40 percent boost in ray tracing performance and a 41% increase in peak performance compared to the Dimensity 9300. It also supports HyperEngine technology for super-resolution and improved picture quality, making it a formidable choice for gaming enthusiasts.

The Apple A18 Pro, with its six-core GPU, is nearly 40 percent faster than the GPU in the iPhone 15 series, enhancing the gaming experience and computational photography capabilities. This significant improvement ensures that the A18 Pro remains competitive against the latest Snapdragon processors. Early benchmarks of the D9400 suggest a significant lead over the A18 Pro’s 6-core GPU, particularly in graphics-intensive tasks and gaming.

AI Capabilities

AI and machine learning have become crucial in modern smartphones, and both the Dimensity 9400 and A18 Pro excel in this domain. The Dimensity 9400 is equipped with MediaTek’s 8th generation NPU, which introduces industry-first features like on-device LoRA training and high-quality video generation. It is designed to support agentic AI applications, offering up to 80 percent faster performance in large language model (LLM) prompts and 35 percent greater power efficiency compared to the Dimensity 9300.

Apple’s A18 Pro, with its new 16-core neural engine, can perform 35 trillion operations per second, more than doubling the AI processing power of the A16 Bionic. This enhancement allows for faster and more efficient on-device AI tasks, such as computational photography and voice recognition.

Power Efficiency

Power efficiency is a critical factor for mobile processors, impacting battery life and overall device performance. The Dimensity 9400 is up to 40 percent more power-efficient than its predecessor, the Dimensity 9300. This improvement translates to longer battery life, even under heavy use.

The Dimensity 9400 and Apple A18 Pro are built on TSMC’s advanced 3nm process, but with slight variations. The Dimensity 9400 utilizes TSMC’s N3B process, while the A18 Pro is uses the more advanced and power-efficient N3P process. This could give the A18 Pro an edge in power consumption and thermal management.

Additional Features

Beyond raw performance, both processors incorporate features that enhance the overall user experience. The Dimensity 9400 supports HDR video recording throughout the entire zoom range, with MediaTek’s Smooth Zoom technology for capturing moving subjects. It also includes Imagiq 1090 for improved image processing. A refreshed 5G modem with up to 7Gbps sub-6GHz performance, Wi-Fi 7 tri-band MLO support, and MediaTek Xtra Range 3.0 for extended Wi-Fi coverage. Additionally, the Dimensity 9400’s dual SIM dual active (DSDA) capabilities offer greater flexibility for users.

Apple’s A18 Pro likely integrates a custom 5G modem with similar capabilities. Additionally, the new chip continues the tradition of integrating advanced technologies seamlessly into the iOS ecosystem. Its 16-core neural engine enhances on-device AI calculations, making tasks like image processing and real-time language translation more efficient. The A18 Pro’s architecture also supports future-proofing for larger AI models, ensuring the chipset remains relevant as AI technology evolves.

Final Thoughts

The Dimensity 9400 and Apple A18 Pro represent the pinnacle of mobile chip technology, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. The Dimensity 9400 appears to have a significant advantage in GPU performance, potentially making it a better choice for gamers. Its “all-big-core” CPU design and advanced AI capabilities also make it a strong contender.

Apple’s A18 Pro, while potentially lagging in GPU performance, is likely to excel in single-core CPU performance and power efficiency. Its tightly integrated design and optimization within the Apple ecosystem will continue to be a major advantage. Both chipsets cater to different segments of the market, but they share a common goal: delivering unparalleled performance and efficiency to meet the demands of modern smartphone users.

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