Mediatek Dimensity 8500 vs Apple A15 Bionic
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In this comparison, we take a closer look at two SoCs, MediaTek Dimensity 8500 vs Apple A15 Bionic, based on their benchmarks and specifications. The MediaTek Dimensity 8500 comes with an octa-core CPU paired with an Arm Mali-G720 MC8 GPU, while the Apple A15 Bionic comes with a hexa-core CPU and the Apple A15 GPU.
Why MediaTek Dimensity 8500 is better than Apple A15 Bionic
- 76% higher AnTuTu score (2.41M vs 1.37M)
- More advanced 4nm process vs 5 nm
- Newer CPU architecture (ARMv9.2-A vs ARMv8.5-A)
- Better multitasking with 8 cores compared to 6
- Uses newer LPDDR5X memory compared to older LPDDR4X
- 125% higher memory bandwidth (76.8 GB/s vs 34.1 GB/s)
- 36% higher compute power (2.32 TFLOPS vs 1.712 TFLOPS)
- Newer Bluetooth 6.0 vs 5.0
- Released 4 years and 4 months later - (January 2026 vs september 9, 2021)
Performance scores
CPU score
MediaTek Dimensity 8500
72
Apple A15 Bionic
60
GPU score
MediaTek Dimensity 8500
84
Apple A15 Bionic
65
Memory score
MediaTek Dimensity 8500
95
Apple A15 Bionic
58
Total score
MediaTek Dimensity 8500
84
Apple A15 Bionic
61
AnTuTu 10
MediaTek Dimensity 8500 +76%
MediaTek Dimensity 8500
2,407,614
Apple A15 Bionic
1,370,514
| CPU | 709,591 | 397,445 |
| GPU | 762,021 | 346,512 |
| MEM | 409,017 | 164,227 |
| UX | 526,985 | 462,330 |
| TOTAL | 2,407,614 | 1,370,514 |
Geekbench 6
Single-Core
Apple A15 Bionic +35%
MediaTek Dimensity 8500
1,728
Apple A15 Bionic
2,341
Multi-Core
MediaTek Dimensity 8500 +18%
MediaTek Dimensity 8500
6,762
Apple A15 Bionic
5,742
| Single-Core | 1,728 | 2,341 |
| Multi-Core | 6,762 | 5,742 |
General
| SoC Name | MediaTek Dimensity 8500 | Apple A15 Bionic |
| Launch Date | January 2026 | september 9, 2021 |
| Class | Upper Mid-range | Flagship |
| Model Number | - | APL1W07 |
| Manufacturing | TSMC | TSMC |
CPU
| Core Configuration | 1x 3.40 GHz - Cortex-A725 3x 3.20 GHz - Cortex-A725 4x 2.20 GHz - Cortex-A725 |
2x 3.23 GHz Avalanche (Performance) 4x 2.02 GHz Blizzard (Efficiency) |
| CPU Cores | 8 | 6 |
| Max Clock Speed | 3400 MHz | 3230 MHz |
| Architecture | ARMv9.2-A | ARMv8.5-A |
| L2 Cache | - | 12 MB |
| L3 Cache | 6 MB | 32 MB |
| Process Node | 4nm | 5 nm |
| TDP | - | 6 W |
GPU
| GPU | Arm Mali-G720 MC8 | Apple A15 GPU |
| GPU Architecture | 5th Gen Valhall | Apple Bionic GPU |
| GPU Frequency | 1300 MHz | 1338 MHz |
| Neural Processing Unit | MediaTek NPU 880 | 16-core Apple Neural Engine |
| Shading Units | 128 | 128 |
| Compute Performance | 2.32 TFLOPS | 1.712 TFLOPS |
| Ray Tracing Support | Yes | No |
| Max Refresh Rate | 144Hz (WQHD+) | 120 Hz |
| Vulkan | 1.3 | - |
| OpenCL | 3.2 | - |
| DirectX | 12 | - |
Memory & Storage
| Memory Type | LPDDR5X | LPDDR4X |
| Frequency | 4800 MHz | 2133 MHz |
| Bus | 4x 16-bit | 4x 16 Bit |
| Max Bandwidth | 76.8 GB/s | 34.1 GB/s |
| Max RAM Size | 24 GB | 6 GB |
| Storage Type | UFS 4.0 | NVMe |
ISP & Multimedia
| Max Camera | 320MP | 12 MP |
| Max Display Resolution | 2960 x 1440 | 2732 x 2048 |
| Video Recording | 4K @ 60FPS | 4K at 60 FPS |
| Video Playback | 4K @ 60FPS | 4K at 60 FPS |
| Video Codecs | H.264, H.265, AV1, VP9 | H.264, H.265, VP8, VP9, Motion JPEG, ProRes |
| Audio Codecs | AAC LC, FLAC, HE-AACv1, HE-AACv2, MP3 | AAC, AAX, AAX+, AC-3, AIFF, CAF, E-AC-3, MP3, MP4, WAV |
Connectivity
| Modem | 3GPP Release 16 | Qualcomm Snapdragon X60 |
| 4G | Yes | Yes |
| 5G | Yes | Yes |
| Download Speed | Up to 5.17 Gbps | Up to 7.5 Gbps |
| Upload Speed | - | Up to 3.0 Gbps |
| Wi-Fi | 6E | 6 |
| Bluetooth | 6.0 | 5.0 |
| Navigation | NavIC, GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS | GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS, BeiDou |