Samsung announces Exynos 1080, its first 5nm chipset aimed at mid-range 5G phones

Samsung has followed in Apple and Huawei’s footsteps with its first chip built on the 5nm process. The Exynos 1080 is a mid-range 5G chipset built on the 5nm EUV FinFET technology and succeeds the Exynos 980 with its integrated 5G modem.

The Exynos 1080 chipset is based on the triple cluster architecture with an 8-core CPU, consisting of one ARM Cortex-A78 core optimised for peak performance, three Cortex-A78 cores for balanced processing, and four Cortex-A55 power efficiency cores. The most powerful core Cortex-78 runs at 2.8 GHz, while the cluster of three Cortex-A78 cores peak at 2.6GHz. The four power-efficiency cores are clocked at 2.0GHz.

The Exynos 1080 SoC features a Mali-G78 GPU based on ARM’s second-generation Valhall architecture. The new chipset features an integrated 5G model that supports both sub-6GHz and mmWave standards. Smartphones powered by the Exynos 1080 SoC can access Cat.18 LTE downlink and uplink. The chip also supports Bluetooth 5.2, FM Radio, and all Wi-Fi bands.

The Exynos 1080 can support a Full HD+ panel at up to 144Hz refresh rate or a WQHD+ screen at up to 90Hz. The chip supports a single camera up to 200 megapixels or dual 32-megapixel + 32-megapixel units. Video resolution maxes out at 4K resolution at 60fps with true 10-bit recording and HDR10+ support. The chip also supports LPDDR4x and LPDDR5 RAM standards and UFS 3.1 storage.

The first smartphones with the Exynos 1080 SoC are expected to arrive in early 2021. During the unveiling event in China, a representative for Samsung said that the chip would debut on a Vivo smartphone. To recall, the Exynos 980 SoC first debuted on the Vivo X30 and X30 Pro.