Samsung has revealed details of its first phone platform to put a 5G modem directly on the chip, meaning next-gen Samsung phones such as the Galaxy S11 will be more power-efficient and cooler when on 5G.
Although MediaTek has integrated 5G on its platform already, Exynos 980 marks a new step for Samsung. We're also expecting the imminent reveal of Huawei's Kirin 990 platform to show an integrated 5G modem. And we already know that Qualcomm's next-gen Snapdragon 865 will be the same.
We're expecting Qualcomm to reveal more details about its 2020 smartphone platform at its annual conference in December.
Samsung's new SoC (System on Chip) is based on 8mm process tech (rather than the 7nm favoured by some other vendors). As with other 5G modems, the platform will be capable of connecting to 2G (voice), 3G, 4G and 5G networks.
As you'd expect, it's octocore and boasts two high-performance Cortex-A77 ARM processor cores and six Cortex-A55 cores based on ARM's latest-gen designs. And for graphics, the chip also utilises ARM's Mali-G76 GPU design.
Again AI capabilities are also high on the agenda, with the neural unit being around 2.7 times faster compared to that on the predecessor Exynos 980 used in the Samsung S10 and Note 10 series.
The platform also supports the latest Wi-Fi 6 standard, too. Routers featuring Wi-Fi 6 have started to be available this year. There's also support for the Samsung-backed HDR10 and encoding and decoding of 4K video at up to 120fps.