Lately, Samsung has been facing a lot of criticism for the performance difference between the two variants of its flagship device. Snapdragon 865 and Exynos 990 power the two options, respectively. However, it looks like the company is not going to give up on its in-house chipset anytime soon. According to a recent report, Samsung is working on its next flagship chip –Exynos 992, and it looks like the company is finally changing a lot of things.
Samsung Exynos 992: All the rumors
New 5nm Process
Samsung will be continuing its partnership with TSMC for the next-generation SoCs. Reportedly, the Exynos 992 will be the first Exynos chipset to use the 5nm EUV manufacturing process. Most of the current flagship processors such as Snapdragon 865 and Samsung’s Exynos 990 are based on the 7nm process. The shift in the manufacturing process is expected to bring improvement in both raw power and efficiency.
Latest Cortex Cores
Exynos 992 will make use of the latest Cortex A78 cores and Mali G78 GPU by ARM. The Cortex A78 is 15% smaller than the Cortex A77 cores but still manages to offer a 20% surge in the performance. Similarly, you can expect up to 25% boost in the performance in Mali 78 compared to Mali G77.
Having said that, ARM had also announced Cortex-X1 alongside A78, which is supposed to be the most powerful ARM CPU to date. The increase in performance does come with a sacrifice of power and size. Sadly, Cortex-X1 won’t be making a debut with Exynos 992. It would have been exciting to see such powerful CPU cores in action on flagship smartphones from Samsung. I mean, that would certainly have helped put the “Exynos-inferiority” debate to rest by some level.
And seeing how next year’s Snapdragon 875 is rumored to pack in the Cortex-X1 CPU cores, we can all but conclude that the Exynos 992 is most likely a glimpse of the next flagship-level Samsung chipset. It’s also in the name, after all. The true successor to Exynos 990 – Exynos 1000 (or whatever Samsung ends up naming it) is the one to look out for, whose most exciting feature is believed to be AMD’s RDNA-based GPU. However, this SoC will only be powering Samsung’s 2021 flagship devices.
Early reports suggest that Exynos 992 will outperform Snapdragon 865 by 1-3%. But performance isn’t the only thing that users are concerned with. It has been evident that the Snapdragon processors are more efficient than their competitors. With the upcoming Qualcomm flagship processor (SD 865+) being delayed due to ongoing pandemic, we might even see other manufacturers incorporating it in their devices.
Production
The mass production of the new Exynos chipset will start in August. So, there is a slight probability that Samsung might use it in the upcoming Galaxy Note 20 series. According to TSMC, all the preparation for the production of the latest chips are complete, and it is up to Samsung to decide to include it into the Note 20 series. To be honest, expecting a new chipset on Note 20 could be a little too much. First, it will be a hurried decision. Second, it will make the Note 20 more powerful than the S20 series. And I don’t think Samsung will let it happen.
Samsung Exynos 992 Launch and Availability
Samsung Exynos 992 will head into production starting from the second half of August. We can expect Exynos 992 to power the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 series and the company’s other flagships after it.
Check out our review of Samsung Galaxy S20, S20+.
