Hadlee Simons / Android Authority
Update: The original version of this article contained several issues with the testing method. We have rerun the tests and apologize for the oversight. vivo has just launched the X300 series, the first phones with MediaTek’s new Dimensity 9500 processor. MediaTek promises some notable horsepower and efficiency gains for this chipset, but what’s it like in a real-world phone? I put our X300 Pro review unit through a series of benchmark tests, and the results are somewhat mixed.
CPU performance: Custom cores still on top We used GeekBench 6 to compare the vivo X300 Pro to a handful of recent rivals, including Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 reference device. Pitting a commercial phone against a reference device isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison, as reference devices can often be built with improved cooling and performance-focused tuning in mind. Still, this gives us a rough idea of what to expect when 8 Elite Gen 5 devices reach retail.
Compared to Qualcomm’s next-gen handsets in their best-case scenario, the vivo X300 Pro is still a little behind. The latest Elite chip has over a 20% multi-core advantage according to GeekBench’s test, though the single-core deficit is not quite as large. Furthermore, retail handsets may not perform as well as Qualcomm’s reference phone, so the gap could be smaller in real-world devices. Either way, both chipsets are clearly more than capable for everyday tasks and then some.
For example, the Dimensity 9500’s new Arm C1-Ultra, Premium, and Pro CPU cores appear to catch up to the previous-generation Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy inside the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Its single-core score nudges ahead, while the multi-core result is slightly behind, and it comes out marginally ahead in both tests compared to the OnePlus 13. Qualcomm’s third-generation Oryon CPU may still have the edge, but the gap is narrowing.
What’s GPU stability, anyway? We were only able to run a Wild Life Stress Test on the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 reference device, and it performed well, even if its stability score left much to be desired. The vivo X300 Pro’s Mali G1-Ultra CPU can’t match the raw power of the 8 Elite Gen 5 Adreno GPU. It falls slightly behind in performance, stability (just 54%), and temperatures, which peaked at 45.1°C and averaged 43.4°C. The average temperature, in particular, is on the hot side. This leaves it trailing last-gen rivals under sustained gaming strain.
Still, the vivo and Dimensity pairing performs better in the more demanding Extreme stress test, leveling the field with last-gen Snapdragon 8 Elite and Elite for Galaxy devices. The phone is also a little more competitive in terms of stability, following a similarly sharp downward trajectory as the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Dimensity 9500 claims a 119% boost to ray tracing performance, and it clearly outperforms last-gen handsets by a solid margin in 3DMark’s Solar Bay.
However, 20 runs is clearly too much for vivo’s flagship, as temperatures climb to 44.8°C and performance collapses to just 52.5% of peak in Solar Bay, leaving it eventually behind some older rivals. Peak performance is nice, but it needs to be sustainable for longer gaming sessions — something today’s powerful yet thermally limited graphics packages often struggle with. That said, the vivo X300 Pro runs hotter than most, similar to last year’s model, so it will be interesting to see how other implementations fare.
MediaTek Dimensity 9500: The early verdict
Hadlee Simons / Android Authority
It’s hard to draw definitive conclusions from just one phone, but the Dimensity 9500 seems like another solid flagship chip from MediaTek. It provides a notable boost over its already potent predecessor and has closed the gap with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite in both CPU and GPU performance. That’s a major accomplishment that will keep the performance enthusiasts onside, although vivo’s temperature remains a cause for concern. Hopefully, that’s not down to the chip itself, and other brands, such as OPPO, will run the 9500 a little cooler, even if it sacrifices a little peak performance.
That said, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 still seems to hold the performance crown—or at least the reference device we’ve seen does. This means that upcoming models like the Galaxy S26 series will likely have the performance edge over the vivo X300 Pro. But we’ll hold final judgment until we can test a few handsets from both brands thoroughly, particularly for battery life. Either way, 2026 is shaping up to be an exciting year for performance enthusiasts like me.
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