Samsung has announced a brand new mobile processor called the Exynos 990. Based on the name, this is a more powerful processor than the Exynos 980 that was announced in early September, and its specs put it in the flagship category.
The Exynos 990 is a 7nm EUV processor just like Huawei’s Kirin 990 5G chipset. The processor has eight cores in a 2+2+4 tri-cluster CPU configuration. There are 2x 5th-generation custom CPU cores + 2x Cortex-A76 cores + 4x Cortex-A55 cores. Samsung is keeping the clockspeed of the cores a mystery. However, it does say the custom CPU cores performance has increased by 20% compared to its predecessor.
The new processor has a Mali-G77 MP11 GPU which replaces the Mali-G76 MP12 GPU of the Exynos 9820. The new GPU provides an improvement in performance or power efficiency of up to 20% compared to its predecessor. With the new GPU, Samsung promises lag-free gaming.
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The Exynos 990 also has a Dual-Core NPU, an extra core more than the Exynos 9820’s NPU. There is also an improved Digital Signal Processor (DSP) which works with the new NPU for better experiences when it comes to camera performance, virtual assistant, and extended reality. The SoC supports up to six cameras with resolutions up to 108MP.
The Exynos 990 supports LPDDR5 RAM, UFS 3.0 and UFS 2.1 storage, and displays with up to 4K UHD resolution. It has an Exynos Modem 5123 for hyper-fast 5G speeds. Samsung says the new modem supports up to 7.35Gbps download speeds in mmWave and 5.1Gbps in sub-6GHz setting with up to 8x carrier aggregation. The new modem which is also built on the 7nm EUV process supports E-UTRA-NR Dual Connectivity (EN-DC) which “combines LTE and 5G connectivity to increase mobile download speed”.
Samsung’s latest processor supports 8K UHD video decoding at 30 frames per second. It also has a 120Hz refresh-rate driver display (you can clap here) alongside 10-bit video and HDR display support. Security has also been improved with a newly added integrated Security Element (iSE) layer that stores and handles personal data in a separate space from the OS.
The Exynos 990 should power Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S11 series phones scheduled for next year.
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