As far as tech news goes, it’s been a rather busy week—Qualcomm held its annual Hawaii launch event, MediaTek likewise unveiled its upcoming flagship chip, and we’ve got some pretty impressive new hardware from Xiaomi. If you’ve been too busy grinding the week away (and we wouldn’t blame you), then we’ve picked some pretty big tech headlines to keep you in the loop. Check them out below!
MediaTek’s Newest Flagship Smartphone Chip is Here: Meet the Dimensity 9500
This week was a major milestone for Qualcomm with the launch of its new hardware, although that wasn’t enough to stop MediaTek from trying to steal the spotlight with its own big announcement. The company unveiled the Dimensity 9500, a new high-end smartphone chip that’s designed with an All Big Core CPU design with a 4.21GHz “ultra core” alongside three premium cores and four performance cores. MediaTek says that the Dimensity 9500 will appear in a number of flagship Android phones later in 2025.
Qualcomm Also Unveils its New Flagship Snapdragon Chip
Now onto Qualcomm—the manufacturer officially announced its Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip at its annual Snapdragon Summit this week as mentioned earlier, describing it as the “world’s fastest mobile system-on-a-chip.” A 3nm chip, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is built to handle newer AI-based software features, better performance with gaming software, as well as more advanced photography and videography capabilities.
Xiaomi Announces Several New Phones and Tablets
Xiaomi also had a busy week as well, unveiling several new devices under its phone and tablet product range. The company presented its new Xiaomi 15T series phones, both of which come with premium designs and relatively-affordable prices, its new Xiaomi Pad 8 and 8 Pro tablets, as well as the new Xiaomi 17 series flagship Android smartphones, which are currently exclusive for buyers in China. The company also said that it plans to expand its electric vehicle business for European markets, starting with a new R&D facility in Munich, Germany.
Want to Use Facebook Without any Ads? You’ll have to Pay First, Meta Says
Social media giant Meta recently announced that it’s moving forward with a major change that will allow users to access a paid, ad-free subscription option for Facebook and Instagram, which will roll out soon in the United Kingdom. For those who choose the subscription (dubbed as Subscription for no ads), the cost for the first Meta account will be £2.99 per month if purchased on the web. The price increases to £3.99 per month when subscribing via the iOS or Android apps, a difference attributed to the fees charged by Apple and Google. Meta says that users who choose to continue using Facebook and Instagram for free will experience no changes to their service, and will still see personalised ads.
