OnePlus could take the road less traveled for its gaming handheld, and it just might pay off

With a tuned Mali GPU and AYANEO's MediaTek playbook as precedent, OnePlus's handheld gamble looks less like a risk and more like a roadmap.

By Shikhar Mehrotra Published April 12, 2026

The Acer Nitro Mobile Gaming Controller. — Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips have long been the popular choice in the gaming handheld world, but OnePlus appears to be reading and learning from a different playbook.

A fresh leak from the Chinese tipster Digital Chat Station suggests that the rumored OnePlus gaming handheld could ship with a special version of the MediaTek Dimensity 9500 chipset.

Why did OnePlus choose Dimensity over Snapdragon?

Specifically, it’s the chip’s ARM Mali G1-Ultra MC12 GPU that could be tweaked to offer “console-level” gaming performance, without any overclocking. The result, in terms of graphical performance, resembles a “mini Dimensity 9600,” according to the tipster.

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Now, Qualcomm does have a dedicated, gaming-focused lineup of Snapdragon chips. However, the company demands a premium for those chips, which ultimately pushes the device’s prices up. This is MediaTek, which comes in with its slightly economical yet capable chipset.

For those catching up, the DImensity 9500 chip has already proved its mettle in Chinese flagships like the Vivo X300 and the Oppo Find X9. The chipset delivers strong GPU performance, impressive ray tracing, and solid efficiency.

Has anyone else done this before?

Yes, and quite convincingly no less. AYANEO, the company that arguably has the widest portfolio in the handheld gaming device market, has used several MediaTek chips over the years. For instance, its Pocket PLAY device featured the Dimensity 9300 chip.

If a market leader like AYANEO is comfortable using MediaTek’s chip, and if the mainstream Chinese brands rely on the chip maker for their top-tier smartphones, OnePlus’s rumored choice looks far less eccentric.

I believe that going for a tuned version of the Dimensity 9500 chip could help OnePlus price its gaming handheld aggressively, pressuring other companies like AYANEO, Retroid, and even the Qualcomm-centric rivals. It’s worth mentioning that OnePlus hasn’t confirmed any details about the device yet.

Shikhar Mehrotra

News Writer

For more than five years, Shikhar has consistently simplified developments in the field of consumer tech and presented them…

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