It’s going to be flagship season soon again. While we’re still wrapping our heads around the huge price hikes hitting all segments of the smartphone market, the next crop of flagships are already ready for launch. The upcoming Vivo X500 Pro Max has now appeared on Geekbench with an unreleased MediaTek processor, which is widely expected to be the Dimensity 9600 Pro.
The listing offers an early look at the chip ahead of MediaTek’s expected September launch, including its CPU configuration and clock speeds. As the phone is still in development, the results should not be taken as a reflection of final performance.
Vivo X500 Pro Max Geekbench scores
The Vivo X500 Pro Max, listed as model V2610 (via), scored 2,653 points in single-core and 7,516 points in multi-core on Geekbench 6.7.1. The scores are lower than what we recorded when we tested the Vivo X300 Pro with the Dimensity 9500 processor last year. The X500 Pro Max’s score, though, could be from an early build and we may expect higher performance numbers when the phone launches. The numbers are also lower than those recorded by the upcoming iQOO 16, which we spotted yesterday on the platform expectedly using Qualcomm’s rival, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro. That phone scored 3,434 in single-core and 9,334 in multi-core in its Geekbench listing.
However, the comparison comes with an important caveat. The Vivo phone is an engineering sample, and its two fastest cores were running at only 2.8GHz during the test. Earlier reports suggest these cores can reach up to 4.55GHz, meaning the final version could deliver substantially higher benchmark scores after further tuning. For context, the current iQOO 15 with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 scored 3,621 in single-core and 10,579 in multi-core in an in-house Geekbench test. This means neither the Vivo nor iQOO 16 listing should be treated as a definitive measure of their final performance.
The leaked Dimensity 9600 Pro processor has eight cores arranged in three groups: two cores reportedly reaching up to 4.55GHz, three reaching 4.35GHz and three running at 3.10GHz. If confirmed, the two high-performance cores would mark a change from MediaTek’s previous flagship chips, which used a single ultra-high-performance prime core. The chip is also expected to use a new Arm GPU and could be manufactured using TSMC’s 2nm process. MediaTek hasn’t officially confirmed the Dimensity 9600 Pro or its specifications yet.
The early results give the Snapdragon-powered iQOO 16 an advantage in Geekbench, but that could change once both phones reach the market. Buyers should also look at sustained performance, battery life, heating, cameras and software before choosing between them. However, Vivo generally places emphasis on the X-series camera prowess with their Zeiss-tuned lenses, so photography enthusiasts should wait for more announcements regarding the phone.
