Samsung Exynos 1080 vs 980 vs 990 vs Kirin 9000 Specification Compared – The new Exynos upper-mid-range chipset has flagship-like specifications

Today, Samsung took the wraps off their latest upper mid-range chipset, the Exynos 1080. This is the second 5nm chipset to be announced, with the Huawei/Hislicon Kirin 9000 5G being the first, and this will be the official successor to the Exynos 980.

However, Samsung has upped their game this year, and the Samsung Exynos 1080 looks to be far more than your typical generational improvement. The overall specification is not far off what you would expect a flagship chipset to be like. If Samsung are launching their mid-range chipset with this sort of calibre, it could make the flagship Exynos 2100 a very exciting chipset for 2020.

So how do the new Exynos 1080 stack up against the older Exynos chipsets, and the only other 5nm chipset on the market?

Specification Comparison

SoC	Exynos 1080	Exynos 980	Exynos 990	Kirin 9000
CPU	1 x ARM Cortex-A78 @ 2.8GHz	2x [email protected]	2x Exynos M5 Cores @ 2.73 GHz	1x Cortex A77 @ 3.13Ghz
	3 x ARM Cortex-A78 @ 2.6GHz		2x Cortex-A76 Cores @2.5 GHz	3x Cortex A77 @ 2.54Ghz
	4x ARM [email protected]	6x ARM Cortex-A55 @ 1.8GHz	4x Cortex-A55 Cores @ ?GHz	4x Cortex A55@ 2.05Ghz
GPU	ARM Mali-G78 MP10	Arm Mali G-76 MP5	ARM Mali-G77 MP11	Mali-G78 24 Cores
APU / NPU / AI Proc. / Neural IP	Dual NPU + DSP	Dual NPU + DSP	Dual NPU + DSP	2 big core, 1 tiny core
Memory	LPDDR5 @ 2750MHz	LPDDR5 @ 2750MHz	LPDDR5 @ 2750MHz	LPDDR5 / LPDDR 4X
ISP/Camera	200MP 32MP+32MP Dual camera	Single Camera - 108MP Dual Camera - 20MP+20MP	Single: 108MP	quad-core, 6th gen ISP
Integrated Modem	Integrated 5G modem 5.1Gbps with mmWave and 3.67Gbps with Sub-6GHz	Integrated 5G modem 3.55Gbps download speed and up to 1.38Gbps for upload speed.	Exynos Modem External (5G NR Sub-6) DL = 5100 Mbps (5G NR mmWave) DL = 7350 Mbps	Balong 5000 4G + 5G NR NSA+SA Sub-6GHz
Process	5nm	7nm	7nm	TSMC 5nm

CPU

Typically we see brands use two big cores and six smaller cores for their upper mid-range chipset, this is the case with the Exynos 980 and Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G, though Mediatek bucked that trend with their Dimensity 800 series.

Samsung has adopted a 1x3x4 design this year with four Arm Coretex A78 cores with one running at 2.8Ghz and the other three at 2.6Ghz.

This will likely give the Exynos 1080 considerably more processing power than the flagship Exynos 990 from last year, and will quite likely beat the flagship Kirin 9000 from this year

GPU

The GPU has had a huge upgrade too, it has skipped a generation going from the Mali G76 to the G78 then doubled the number of cores! That is just not something you see with generation improvements.

It will quite likely offer more GPU grunt than the Exynos 990 too, that has one more GPU core but uses the generation behind with the Mali G77.

While Exynos 1080 will likely have more CPU power than the Kirin, it doesn’t come close to the 24 cores on the Kirin chipset.

Benchmarks

An early benchmark for Antutu was revealed for the Exynos 1080, which indicated a massive score of 693,600.

The Kirin 9000 has scored as high as 686,835 though this is with the benefits fo performance mode.

The current Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G with the Exynos 990 only manages 536835

Overall

The Samsung Exynos 1080 looks like it could be the most powerful upper mid-range chipset for the up and coming year. However, the main issue is the availability of devices using it. Currently, Samsung list just four devices with the Exynos 980, including the Galaxy A71, A51 then the Vivo S6 and X30. Vivo has almost no presence in western markets.