MediaTek Dimensity 9400 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 Could Drive Up Phone Prices, October New Phone Prices Are a Mystery

MediaTek Dimensity 9400 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 Could Drive Up Phone Prices, October New Phone Prices Are a MysteryNext month (October), MediaTek and Qualcomm will release their next-generation flagship processors the Dimensity 9400 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 4. While performance improvements are expected, their prices have become a focus of attention

MediaTek Dimensity 9400 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 Could Drive Up Phone Prices, October New Phone Prices Are a Mystery

Next month (October), MediaTek and Qualcomm will release their next-generation flagship processors the Dimensity 9400 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 4. While performance improvements are expected, their prices have become a focus of attention. According to blogger @Digital Chat Station, some manufacturers are planning to price their iterative new phones at 4299 yuan (12GB+256GB), and most subsequent new phones will see price increases. This means that iterative models equipped with Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 and Dimensity 9400 will all see price increases.

Lei Jun previously stated at the Xiaomi 14 series launch that the Xiaomi 14 will be the last Xiaomi numbered flagship to start at 3999 yuan, indicating that they will no longer be stuck at this price point in the future, indirectly validating the rumors of new phone price increases.

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo's report indicates that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chip, which will go into mass production in the second half of 2024, uses TSMC's latest N3E manufacturing process, and its price will increase by 25%~30% compared to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Similarly, the Dimensity 9400 chip, using the same manufacturing process, will also see an increase in cost. Changes in chip prices are bound to affect mobile phone manufacturers' cost control and product pricing, and consumers may need to increase their purchasing budgets.

Industry insiders speculate that some non-flagship phones, in order to control costs, may use plastic frames instead of metal frames, lower the imaging capabilities, and other measures to attract consumers.

Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 Performance Upgrades

Recent news suggests that Qualcomm's new flagship chip the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will be renamed the Snapdragon 8 Elite. The CPU adopts a 2+6 architecture design, with two super-large cores clocked at 4.32GHz, and six large cores clocked at 3.53GHz, a significant improvement compared to the 3.3GHz of the previous generation Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Additionally, the new chip's single-core performance has increased by 35%, and multi-core performance has increased by 30%. This means that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 has a stronger performance advantage in multi-core application scenarios, potentially bringing users a smoother and more realistic graphics processing experience.

Breakthrough Design of Dimensity 9400

The Dimensity 9400 will adopt TSMC's 3nm manufacturing process and an all-large-core design, consisting of one 3.63GHz Cortex-X925 super-large core + three 2.8GHz Cortex-X4 super-large cores + four 2.1GHz Cortex-A7 series large cores. The Cortex-X925 is a new generation of super-large cores designed by Arm, offering a 36% performance improvement and a 41% AI performance improvement compared to the previous generation X4. In terms of GPU, the Dimensity 9400 integrates Mali-G925-ImmortalisMC12, supporting hardware-level ray tracing, with ray tracing performance improving by nearly 20% compared to the previous generation.

Competition for the First Release

Currently, the first release of the Dimensity 9400 is basically confirmed to be the vivo X200 series, followed by the OPPO Find X8/X8 Pro. As for the new Snapdragon chip, recent news suggests that the Xiaomi 15 series, OnePlus 13, and Honor Magic7 series are all vying for the first release, and are expected to debut around the same time in October.

October's New Phone Prices TBD

In conclusion, the prices of several new phones to be released in October may change. To determine the actual performance of these models, we may have to wait until after the release of the chips. Please be patient for more information.