Samsung has finally confirmed the most radical change of its new smartphone, the Galaxy S9. In an official statement made yesterday, the company launched the ‘Exynos 9 Series 9810’, the chipset that will be the heart of this new device and described as the “most innovative mobile processor yet.” However, while this may be good news for users around the world, it could mean bad news for America.
Compared to its predecessor, the Exynos 9 Series 9810 will offer a two-fold improvement in single core performance alongside 40% greater multi core performance. Peak clock speeds are expected to be as high as 2.9GHz and Samsung is also promising greater efficiency.
The Exynos 9810 also offers a range of tricks/improvements including the ability to record 4K UHD at up to 120fps. This is twice the 60fps of the iPhones that were released in 2017. There will also be support for 10-bit HEVC and VP9 video formats, offering a 64x color palette than the 8-bit color support that we saw last year. Additionally, a Cat.18 LTE modem with up to 6x carrier aggregation (vs 5ca last year) can deliver up to 1.2Gbps downlink and 200Mbps uplink. Again, this absolutely dwarfs the LTE-A chip in Apple’s most recent iPhones.
In an attempt to respond to Apple’s Face ID, the device will have neural networks for “accurately recognizing people or items in photos for fast image searching or categorization, or through depth sensing, scan a user’s face in 3D for hybrid face detection.” Samsung has also mentioned “realistic face-tracking filters” alongside “stronger security when unlocking a device with one’s face.”
The bad news comes as the fact that the Galaxy smartphones will continue to be split between the Snapdragon and Exynos chipsets and the current Snapdragon 845 chipset will be unable to handle the 120fps 4K UHD video recording that the device promises. Unfortunately, it will be customers in the U.S. who will receive S9 devices with the Snapdragon chipset while the rest of the world benefit from the Exynos 9810.
