Samsung has unveiled its latest flagship SoC and called it the Exynos 9810. It is built on the South Korean tech giant's second-generation 10-nm FinFET process. The new Exynos chipset offers an increase in performance, faster Gigabit LTE, better image processing and also some iPhone X-like features. This is the chip that we'll be using in Samsung's upcoming flagship phones, including the Galaxy S9, Note 9, and so on.

Exynos 9810. Samsung

“The Exynos 9 Series 9810 is our most innovative mobile processor yet, with our third-generation custom CPU, ultra-fast gigabit LTE modem and, deep learning-enhanced image processing,” said Ben Hur, vice president of System LSI marketing at Samsung Electronics.

The Exynos 9810 has an 8-core CPU inside of it, four of which can clock up to 2.9 GHz. The other four are optimised for higher power efficiency. The architecture is built to improve and increase cache memory, a feature that's to be included in Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon 845 and which is already a part of Apple's A-series chips. Samsung also says that the Exynos 9810 offers up to two times more single-core processing power and a 40 percent increase in multi-core processing power as compared to its predecessor.

The Exynos 9810 uses 3D hybrid face detection through depth sensing for accurate face detection and supports face tracking filters (like animoji) and face unlock. These features are very similar to the ones that were introduced with the iPhone X.

Samsung says that with the "world's first" 1.2 Gbps LTE modem in the chipset, broadcasting and streaming 360-degree or UHD videos will now become much easier and quicker. However, according to previous reports, Huawei's HiSilicon Kirin 970 also touched LTE download speeds of 1.2 Gbps. As announced in December last year, The Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chip will also support a 1.2 Gbps LTE modem.

Compared to its predecessor the new modem on the Exynos 9810 supports "4×4 MIMO (Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output) and 256-QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) scheme, and utilizes enhanced Licensed-Assisted Access (eLAA) technology", whatever that means. Bottom line: It's really fast.

“The Exynos 9810 will be a key catalyst for innovation in smart platforms such as smartphones, personal computing and automotive for the coming AI era.” said Ben Hur. The dedicated image processor on the chip also adds for 4K 120 fps video recording and playback, a welcome feature in a world where Android flagships can't record faster than 30 fps. Apple's latest iPhones can record at 4K, 60 fps. The chipset is currently in mass-production and we should see it being used on the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus.