MediaTek has launched the Dimensity 9000 as a main alternative to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen1 and Exynos 2200 SoCs for the mobile devices of 2022. In fact, it did much the same with its predecessor, the 1200, in 2021.
However, in reality, this chipset yielded more mid-range performance compared to its Snapdragon 888 counterpart, meaning that the smartphones based on it were marketed more as 'flagship killers' rather than flagships, with the competitive prices to match.
However, this may not be the case with the Dimensity 9000. According to the prolific leaker Digital Chat Station, its advantageous specs, not to mention its status as a product of the reportedly prodigious TSMC 4 nanometer (4nm) node, have resulted in a price per unit of "almost twice" that of the 1200.
Accordingly, this might have a knock-on effect on the cost passed on to the consumer for a phone based on the new top-end processor. On the other hand, Digital Chat Station also now asserts that the 9000 remains cheaper than the 8 Gen1.
Therefore, while phones with that upcoming MediaTek hardware as a buzzword might be pricey compared to their immediate predecessors, they will still be at least a bit of a bargain compared to upcoming flagships that go with Qualcomm top-end silicon instead.
Then again, the latest word is that we may have to wait until February 2022 to make sure of these alleged changes in the smartphone market-tier landscape.