Samsung Galaxy S10’s Exynos 9820 may have dual NPUs

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If the rumors floating around end up being true, then 2019 is going to be jam-packed with innovative new technologies in the smartphone space. We’ve already caught a glimpse of the future with pop-up cameras in the Honor Magic 2 and Xiaomi Mi Mix 3, but we’re expecting next year to bring us display holes, under-display cameras, and other crazy tech. The Samsung Galaxy S10, Samsung’s next flagship phone which will probably come in 4 different presentations, will turn heads when it’s announced early next year. The Galaxy S10 will excite the tech world not just because of the rumored 5G support and under-screen camera, but also because of its improved brains behind the operation. The Samsung Galaxy S10 is expected to feature the next-generation Exynos 9820 chipset, which should prove to be a substantial improvement over the current Exynos 9810 used in the Galaxy S9 and the Galaxy Note 9. Now, thanks to information provided by Korean publication Etnews, we’re learning more about the upcoming Samsung chipset ahead of its unveiling.

The Exynos 9820 chipset will be based on a 7nm process, which is something we’ve expected for a while. The chipset is competing directly with the HiSilicon Kirin 980, the Apple A12 Bionic, and the upcoming Qualcomm Snapdragon 8150/855 which are all 7nm-based. But the big news here is actually centered on the Exynos 9820’s artificial intelligence capabilities. The Exynos 9820 is apparently coming with dual NPU (neural processing units) to handle AI-related tasks effectively.

Huawei’s Kirin 980 also includes dual NPUs which are responsible for many of the Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro’s AI-based features and video processing features such as AI Zoom, AI Color, Video Bokeh, etc. While the fact that the new Samsung chipset includes dual NPUs alone isn’t a guarantee that similar features will arrive on the Galaxy S10, it is highly likely that Samsung intends to introduce new features taking advantage of this updated hardware. We’ll probably learn more later, though.

Once again, we don’t know what Samsung is bringing to the table on the Galaxy S10 or Galaxy S10+, but it’s sure going to be interesting. We’ll keep you in the loop as things unfold.