Samsung will likely start mass-producing its upcoming flagship mobile chipset in August. Tentatively named the Exynos 992, it will be the successor to the Exynos 990 that powers the Galaxy S20 lineups in many global markets, including India. According to an industry insider quoted by ZDNet Korea, “All preparations for the launch of a new application processor (Exynos 992) based on the 5 nanometer process in the second half (August) are complete”.
The Exynos 992 will reportedly be built using Samsung’s 5nm FinFET process and is expected to offer significant improvements over its predecessor in terms of power efficiency and graphics performance. It will reportedly come with Cortex A78 CPU cores and a Mali G78 GPU. According to an ARM official quoted by the blog, Cortex A78 cores are more than 20 percent power efficient when compared to Cortex A77 cores, while the Mali G78 will offer around 25 percent better graphics processing performance than the Mali G77 in the Exynos 990.
The blog further claims that Samsung may use the Exynos 992 to power its Galaxy Note 20 models in South Korea in a major departure from its recent policies. According to a source quoted by the blog, Samsung will likely sell Exynos 992-powered Galaxy Note 20 devices in South Korea this time around, while the Snapdragon 865-powered variants will be reserved for the US.
As for consumers in India, Europe and most other regions, we’re likely to end up with the Exynos variant whether we want it or not. However, given that the new chip will have better energy efficiency and a more powerful graphics chip, it might address some of the concerns people raised with the Exynos 990.
