Samsung today officially detailed its Exynos 9820 chipset that we will eventually see in the upcoming Galaxy S10/S10+ in certain markets including India. We saw a definite improvement in day-to-day experience on the Galaxy S9/S9+ and Galaxy Note9 this year, each of which is fueled by Exynos 9810, but Qualcomm’s 845 still proved to be a better performer, especially under heavy load.
The 8nm Exynos 9820 will have to match up to upcoming 7nm based Snapdragon 855 while improving the shortcomings of the Exynos 9810. Is it up for the task? Well, it will still take many months before we get to test and experience both mobile platforms extensively and answer that question. Meanwhile, let’s talk about all that has changed and improved with the Exynos 9820 on paper.
Exynos 9820 vs Exynos 9810: What has changed?
| Mobile platform | Exynos 9820 | Exynos 9810 |
| Core configuration | 2 x Custom M4 cores + 2 x Cortex A75 + 4 x Cortex A55
Comparatively higher L3 cache NPU |
4 x Custom M3 cores + 4 x Cortex A55 |
| Process | 8nm LPP | 10nm LPP |
| GPU | Mali G76MP12 | Mali G72MP18 |
| Memory support | 4x 16-bit CH LPDDR4xUFS 3.0 storage supported |
4x 16-bit CH LPDDR4xUFS 2.1 storage supported |
| Modem | Shannon Integrated LTE (Category 20/13) |
Shannon Integrated LTE (Category 20/13) |
| ISP/Camera | Rear: 22MP Front: 22MP Dual: 16MP+16MP |
Rear: 22MP Front: 22MP Dual: 16MP+16MP |
Exynos 9820 Key Highlights
- With Exynos 9820, Samsung switches to a 2+2+4 core architecture. Splinting performance core in two halves – 2x custom M4 and 2x Cortex-A75 – will help Exynos 9810 to be more flexible and more power-efficient under moderate to heavy loads.
- All the three clusters will share an L3 cache, which will help improve the performance of 4x Cortex-A55 cores.
- The new M4 cores promise 20 percent performance improvement and 40% improvement in power efficiency compared to Exynos 9810. Samsung hasn’t announced the clock frequencies for these cores.
- Since Samsungs 7nm (EUVL) process didn’t arrive in time, the Exynos 9820 is based on the 8nm process which, according to Samsung, will improve power consumption by 10 percent. These figures seem conservative compared to what other 7nm SoCs claim, but real-world performance differences shouldn’t me much.
- According to Samsung claims, the new Mali G76 M12 GPU will show a 40% increase in performance or a 35% increase in power efficiency.
- Exynos 9820 is also the first Samsung chipset to include a Neural Processing Engine (NPU). This NPU will be 7X faster than Exynos 9820 at executing tasks related to AI, Photo Capture, AR, etc.
- The Exynos 9820 chipset also supports UFS 3.0 storage, which could result in doubling data transfer speed compared to UFS 2.1 storage.
Exynos 9820 vs Exynos 9810
It’s quite clear that Samsung’s new chipset will be a significant improvement over Exynos 9810. However, it remains to be seen how well it will perform against 7nm chips like Kirin 980 and the upcoming Snapdragon 855.
Up until a few years ago, Snapdragon chips used to be well ahead in the game until the unanticipated transition to 64-bit chips leveled the field. Samsung wouldn’t want to fall back again.
