Samsung Reveals Its New All-Powerful Smartphone Chip

Samsung has taken the wraps off its next-generation smartphone processor, which is set to power the next editions of its flagship mobile devices.

The Exynos 8 Octa 8890 features a boost in processing power, superfast download speeds and LTE connectivity, all packed into a slimmer 14nm build than previous generations.

The reveal comes the day after Qualcomm revealed its latest processor, signifying how the competition in the smartphone chip market is heating up.

Integrated

And much like Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820, the Exynos 8 Octa 8890 is an all-in-one design, with Samsung’s own modem folded into the chip.

The CPU has been custom-designed around a 64-bit ARM design, and will apparently give a 30 percent improvement in performance and ten percent in power efficiency compared to the Exynos 7 Octa.

ARM’s latest Mali-T880 graphics processor also snuggles closely next to a high-end LTE modem which will support Cat.12/13 modem that enables maximum download speeds of up to 600Mbps (Cat.12) and upload speed of up to 150Mbps (Cat.13).

“The Exynos 8 Octa is a leading-edge application processor for next-generation mobile devices that incorporates Samsung’s mobile technology leadership in CPU, ISP, and modem as well as process technology,” said Dr. Kyushik Hong, Samsung’s vice president of system LSI marketing.

“With our custom designed CPU cores and the industry’s most advanced LTE modem, consumers using mobile devices with the Exynos 8 Octa will experience a new level of mobile computing.”

The new chip could see its debut in the rumoured Galaxy S7 device, development of which is reportedly being ramped up by Samsung in order to combat the huge success recently seen in Apple’s latest iPhone launch.

Samsung has typically tried not to clash with Apple when it comes to cycles of its latest devices, preferring to announce new releases in the spring, with the latter doing so in the autumn.

However the immediate success of Apple’s iPhone 6S and 6S Plus devices, which sold 13 million units in just three days of being on sale, has evidently prompted a rethink.

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