It’s finally Galaxy Note 10 day, which means the Note 10 rumors are almost over. We’ve got some official Note 10 business for you right away. With a few hours to go until Samsung’s second Unpacked press event of the year, the Korean giant unveiled the phone’s processor. That’s the Exynos 9825 that appeared in several leaks so far. In the past few weeks, we saw benchmark leaks that mentioned the Exynos 9825 by name, as well as reports that claimed the CPU would power almost all of Samsung’s Note 10 variations. More interestingly, the Exynos 9825 is built on the same technology that’s being used to manufacture the A13 chip that will go inside the iPhone 11 phones this year.
The Exynos 9825 processor is the successor of the Exynos 9820 that powers some of the Galaxy S10 versions out there. As the name suggests, we’re not looking at a massive upgrade, but the chip happens to be built on the 7nm process. It’s Samsung’s first 7nm processor, which comes almost a year after Apple and Huawei introduced their 7nm chips, and several months after Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855.
However, the Exynos 9825 features a different 7nm lithography process called EUV (extreme ultraviolet), separate from the 7nm FinFET process used for the iPhone XS. TSMC has started manufacturing 7nm EUV chips earlier this year, catering to Apple and Huawei’s needs, according to previous reports.
Getting back to the 9825, the upgrade from 8nm to 7nm should result in better efficiency and slightly improved performance. As AnandTech observed, Samsung made no changes to the CPU or GPU. We’re still looking at an eight-core chip powered running at similar frequencies as the Galaxy S10’s processor.
On the product page for the processor, Samsung emphasizes the processor’s power and efficiency and focuses on several aspects of the chip that suggest the Note 10 should be a great device when it comes to performance.
Among the Exynos 9825’s highlights, Samsung cites the built-n Neural Processing Unit (NPU) that handles artificial intelligence and machine learning; high-end mobile gaming; improved photography skills; UFS 3.0 storage support; 8K UHD video support; security; and 2Gbps LTE wireless speeds. The chip doesn’t come with a bundled 5G modem, however.
Samsung hasn’t confirmed that the Note 10 is going to feature the Exynos 9825 chip, but it’ll do so in just a few hours.
