At Mobile World Congress 2026 in Barcelona, OPPO and MediaTek used the stage to highlight the next phase of smartphone artificial intelligence. The two companies jointly demonstrated a series of on-device AI capabilities during MediaTek's "AI for Life" keynote, signalling how smartphone innovation is increasingly moving from the cloud to the device itself.
The collaboration reflects a broader shift across the industry. As AI features become more integrated into everyday smartphone usage, brands are looking to process more of these tasks directly on the device. The goal is to reduce latency, improve privacy, and deliver more consistent performance even when network connectivity is limited.
OPPO Focuses on Real-Time AI Experiences
Jason Liao, President of the OPPO Research Institute, outlined the company's AI roadmap built around what it calls "New Computing, New Perception, and New Ecosystem." A key pillar of this approach is on-device computing, where AI tasks run locally on the smartphone rather than relying heavily on cloud infrastructure.
OPPO demonstrated two new AI features running on devices powered by MediaTek's Dimensity 9500 platform. The first is AI Translate, which performs multilingual translation directly on the device and is designed to function even without internet connectivity. According to the company, the feature delivers improved accuracy compared with conventional translation approaches while maintaining stable output in weak signal conditions.
The second feature, AI Portrait Glow, focuses on photography. It analyses scene lighting and reconstructs illumination to improve portrait shots taken in challenging conditions such as low light or backlit environments. Because the processing happens on-device, the feature can work without network access while maintaining natural image rendering.
Both capabilities are expected to arrive on the OPPO Find X9 series through the upcoming ColorOS 16 update.
OPPO also previewed Omni, a new full-modal AI model designed to run directly on smartphones. The system can process voice, video, and text inputs simultaneously, allowing the device to interpret real-world scenes and respond to user queries in real time. The technology points toward more context-aware smartphone assistants that can understand their surroundings rather than responding only to direct commands.
MediaTek Highlights the Role of AI Chip Platforms
For MediaTek, the demonstration reinforced the growing importance of AI processing at the chipset level. As smartphone brands push more intelligence onto the device, the underlying silicon must be capable of handling complex machine learning workloads efficiently.
MediaTek's Dimensity 9500 platform powers the AI features showcased during the keynote. The chipset integrates dedicated AI processing capabilities that allow smartphones to run tasks such as translation, image enhancement, and multimodal interaction without relying heavily on cloud computing.
This hardware-level optimisation is becoming increasingly important as AI experiences expand beyond single features into broader system-level capabilities.
Ecosystem Features and AI Imaging Tools
At the MediaTek booth during MWC, OPPO also showcased additional AI-powered features on devices such as the Find X9 Pro and Reno15 Pro. These included AI Motion Photo Eraser, AI Motion Photo Popout, and AI Flash Photography, highlighting the company's continued focus on AI-assisted imaging.
The companies also demonstrated improvements in cross-platform connectivity. OPPO confirmed that the Find X9 series will support Android Quick Share in collaboration with MediaTek and Google. The feature allows users to transfer files between OPPO smartphones and Apple devices running iOS, iPadOS, and macOS without installing third-party applications. The capability is expected to begin rolling out through a software update starting in March.
The OPPO and MediaTek showcase reflects a broader shift underway in the smartphone industry. As AI becomes a core part of the user experience, manufacturers are looking to move more processing directly onto the device rather than relying on remote servers.
This transition not only improves responsiveness but also addresses growing concerns around data privacy and network reliability. It also signals deeper collaboration between smartphone brands and chipset makers, as delivering advanced AI capabilities increasingly requires tight integration between hardware and software.
For OPPO and MediaTek, the demonstrations at MWC suggest that the next generation of smartphones will be defined not just by camera sensors or processors, but by how intelligently devices can interpret and respond to the world around them.
