MediaTek Dimensity 9400e: A New Chip? Sort Of.

So, MediaTek has something new on the table—well, kind of. They’ve just announced the Dimensity 9400e. On paper, it’s a fresh entry in their flagship lineup. But let’s be honest: if you squint a little, it’s basically the 9300+ from last year, just dressed up with a new name and a few tweaks. Now, that’s not to say it’s exactly the same. It’s not. There are adjustments here and there. For example, the CPU setup still uses the “All Big Core” layout: one Cortex-X4 core at 3.4GHz, three more at 2.85GHz, and four Cortex-A720s running at 2.0GHz. Déjà vu? Yep—it’s identical to the 9300+.

The Subtle Differences

Memory speeds took a slight dip. The 9400e handles LPDDR5X at 8533MHz, down from the 9300+’s 9600MHz. It’s a change, sure, but in day-to-day usage? Most folks probably won’t notice. Storage? Same old. UFS 4.0 with Multi-Circular Queue (MCQ). Solid, but not groundbreaking.

The GPU—still the Immortalis-G720 MC12. Same 12-core setup. Yes, it still supports hardware-accelerated ray tracing, which sounds flashy, but it depends heavily on whether developers choose to support it. A feature waiting for its moment, maybe.

Dimensity 9400e Connectivity—Some Actual Progress

Here’s where things get a bit more interesting. Peak Wi-Fi speeds are now up to 7.3Gbps, a jump from the previous 6.5Gbps. It’s a bump, not a leap. Bluetooth also got a nudge—version 6.0, dual engines, and supposedly up to 5 kilometers of range… though that’s probably under perfect conditions. There’s also support for MediaTek’s latest NeuroPilot SDK, which opens doors for new AI tools. Multi-modality, large vision models, and yes, more language models. Whether your phone will use all that horsepower is another question.

What About Gaming?

MediaTek’s pushing gaming again. The 9400e keeps its Adaptive Gaming and HyperEngine tricks, but adds something new: Frame Rate Converter. The pitch? Up to 40% less power draw. How it achieves that? Honestly, they didn’t really say.

Real Phones, Real Soon

You won’t have to wait long to see this chip in action. OnePlus is using it in their upcoming Ace5 Racing Edition (China-only, for now), and Realme’s packing it into the GT 7. Both are expected before the month wraps up.