The flagship wars have already begun and there are three companies at the forefront of this war. This is Apple A19 Pro vs Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 vs Dimensity 9500. Samsung might bounce back but until the Exynos 2600 drops, we’re not going to be looking at them as a serious contender.
What this also means is that Google’s Tensor and Xiaomi’s Xring still has some way to go before being able to challenge these juggernauts but keep your eyes peeled. Maybe they’ll get there. Who knows? Now on to the contenders
The Contenders
The Apple A19 Pro is Apple’s latest flagship processor for its iPhones. It replaces last year’s iPhone A18 Pro and it currently powers the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max. It is equipped with Apple’s custom CPU and GPU cores and it is made on a 3nm TSMC process.
Next up is the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. About a decade ago, Qualcomm were in dire straits having fallen behind Samsung and Apple in the chip wars. But they’ve recovered excellently to reclaim a seat at the top table.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 replaces the Snapdragon 8 Elite and will certainly be the first choice on most OEM’s lists to power their super flagships. It ships with Oryon’s custom cores, Adreno GPU and it’s also built on a 3nm TSMC process.
Finally there’s the Dimensity 9500. From nothing, MediaTek has risen to the world’s top and seems to be even thriving. The Dimensity 9500 replaces the Dimensity 9400+ as most likely the second best choice for OEMs to power their flagships. It uses ARMs CPU cores and GPUs and just like the other two, it’s made on a 3nm process.
Now on to the topic at hand. Which one’s the best between the Apple A19 Pro vs Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 vs Dimensity 9500?
Apple A19 Pro vs Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 vs Dimensity 9500
| Specs | Apple A19 Pro | Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 | Dimensity 9500 |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | 2x Perf (4.26GHz)
4x Eff (2.6GHz) |
2x Oryon L (4.6GHz)
6x Oryon M (3.62GHz) |
1x C1 Ultra (4.21GHz)
3x C1 Premium 4x C1 Pro |
| Fab | 3nm (TSMC) | 3nm (TSMC) | 3nm (TSMC) |
| GPU | Apple A19 Pro GPU | Qualcomm Adreno 840 | ARM Mali G1 Ultra |
| RAM | LPDDR5X @4800MHz | LPDDR5X @5300MHz | LPDDR5X @5300MHz |
| Storage | NVMe | UFS 4.1 | UFS 4.1 |
| AnTuTu | ~2.5M | ~3.7M | ~4.0M |
| Geek Bench | 3820/10021 | 3834 / 12396 | 3394 / 9974 |
| Camera | Up to 48MP | Up to 320MP | Up to 320MP |
| Video | 4K@120fps | 8K @ 60fps | 8K @ 60fps |
| Comms | 5G (X80 Modem), WiFi 7, BT 6.0 | 5G (X85 Modem), WiFi 7, BT 6.0 | 5G (MTK modem), WiFi 7, BT 6.0 |
| Overall Power | Excellent | Outstanding | Powerful & inconsistent |
Performance
This one’s a tough one as all three flagship processors use very different CPUs with custom architecture. The Apple A19 Pro uses 6 CPUs (2x Performance CPUs @4.26GHz + 4x Battery efficiency CPUs @2.6GHz). This has always been Apple’s standard CPU core configuration and it hasn’t changed at all. In my opinion, this has handicapped Apple because they’re operating with 2 less CPU cores. However in reality, this hasn’t affected them at all and they can still compete with the very best.
Qualcomm also uses the same big.LITTLE architecture that Apple uses (cough…Nuvia…cough) but with 2 extra battery efficiency cores. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 uses 2 Oryon L CPUs (4.6GHz) and 6 Oryon M CPUs (3.62GHz). This officially makes the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 the fastest processor in the world. Well by clock speed alone at least.
The Dimensity 9500 sticks with the regular ARM CPUs and maintains a DynamIQ setup of 1+3+4. This means that the Dimensity 9500 uses 1 Cortex C1 Ultra (4.21GHz), 3x Cortex C1 Premium (3.5GHz) and 4x Cortex C1 Pro (2.7GHz). Despite having the 3rd fastest CPU cores here, MediaTek is confident that ARM’s latest CPUs will match up with the custom cores of both their competitors. It actually does, funnily enough.
These CPU cores are all cutting edge and are currently the best that are available on the market. They are all world class in their own right. Thus the margins between them will be very slim and will mostly be down to optimization and heat management. Now this is an area where MediaTek has always struggled.
GPU, Graphics and Gaming
For Graphics and Gaming, Apple sticks with their tried and tested Apple A19 Pro GPU whilst Qualcomm maintains the Adreno 840 GPU. MediaTek on the other hand does not have their own custom GPU and relies on ARM’s Mali G1 Ultra GPU. Going by specs and benchmarks, the Mali G1 Ultra is the better GPU here, followed by the Adreno 840 and finally the Apple A19 Pro GPU. These are all cutting edge by the way.
RAM and Storage
All three processors use LPDDR5X RAM but whilst the Dimensity 9500 and the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 run their RAM at 5300MHz, Apple decided to clock theirs at 4800MHz.
For storage, both the Dimensity 9500 and Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 support UFS 4.1 but Apple prefers their own low-powered NVMe storage.
Benchmarks
To test the performance of these processors, we’ll have to assess them using benchmarks.
On AnTuTu, the MediaTek Dimensity 9500 is the best SoC with a performance of around 4 million. Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 comes in second place with about 3.7 million and Apple A19 Pro comes third with 2.5 million. Apple’s never done well on AnTuTu so I really won’t pay much attention to that. GeekBench on the other hand presents a much level playing field.
On GeekBench, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is the best here with scores of 3834/12,396. The Apple A19 Pro comes second with 3820/10,021 and the Dimensity 9500 is third with scores of 3394/9974.
Overall the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 maintains its score across both tests, the Dimensity 9500 and Apple A19 Pro experience wild swings in results. Whilst AnTuTu is a great reference point, the Dimensity’s 4 million points score is suspicious because it’s not backed up on GeekBench the same way Qualcomm’s 3.7 million score is. That’s my opinion by the way.
Cameras and Videos
Both the Dimensity 9500 and the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 support up to 320MP cameras but Apple chooses to stick stubbornly with their 48MP support.
For video, the same scenario is repeated as both aforementioned SoCs support videos of 8K@60fps whilst Apple sticks with 4K@120fps support.
Comms
As expected, all three SoCs support 5G (sub-6GHz and mmwave), 4G, GPS, WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 6.0. These are all cutting edge standards.
However it should be noted that the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 uses the best modem here (Snapdragon X85). Apple’s A19 Pro also uses a Snapdragon modem as well (Snapdragon X80) but MediaTek uses their own 5G modem.
Overall
- CPU – 8 Elite Gen 5
- GPU – Dimensity 9500
- RAM – Dimensity 9500
- Storage – Nil
- Benchmarks – 8 Elite Gen 5
- Camera – 8 Elite Gen 5
- Video – A19 Pro
- Comms – 8 Elite Gen 5
It is clear that Qualcomm and MediaTek are dominating the key specs with Apple having to make do with a 3rd place finish. What MediaTek needs to do is to focus on developer support or optimization because pure power is meaningless when it does not reflect in real life.
Apple knows fully well that they’re losing ground and will focus more on optimization whilst keeping the walls of their walled garden even higher.
Qualcomm on the other hand will definitely seek to improve on GPU performance as well as RAM in order to move into a clear lead.
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