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Samsung hypes Galaxy S21's Exynos 2100 chip in announcement teaser

By Anam Hamid

Updated: Jan 07, 2021, 3:47 AM

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Samsung hypes Galaxy S21's Exynos 2100 chip in announcement teaser

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The Galaxy S21 series is leaking left, right, and center, and although Samsung hasn't commented on the leaks, it has revealed that a new chip, possibly the Exynos 2100, will be launched on January 12.

This chip is expected to fuel the European, Middle Eastern, and South Korean variants of the Galaxy S21. The American and Chinese models will most likely have the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 under the hood.

Is Exynos is back?

Samsung's chips have earned a bit of bad rep in recent years. The criticism has apparently led to massive internal changes, such as the abandonment of the custom Mongoose cores. The chaebol has instead adopted Arm's designs, and this is expected to help it reduce the performance discrepancy between Snapdragon-driven and Exynos based models.

#Exynos_is_back
A whole new Exynos is coming.
January 12th, 2021. pic.twitter.com/d85kT9Xvru
— Samsung Exynos (@SamsungExynos) December 18, 2020

Qualcomm's new chip is based on the 5nm manufacturing process and it features one core based on Arm's Cortex-X1 running at 2.84GHz, three Cortex-A78 cores, and four Cortex-A55 cores.

The Exynos 2100 is tipped to offer the same architecture, but its Cortex-X1 core will likely operate at 2.91Ghz. The other cores are also expected to have higher clock speeds when compared to the Snapdragon 888.

The new Exynos SoC is also reported to be more power-efficient than its predecessors.

Last month, Samsung announced a new chip called Exynos 1080 for midrange phones and it will make its commercial debut later this month with a Vivo handset. Qualcomm recently shared official benchmark results for the Snapdragon 888, and if you compare them to what the Exynos 1080 has allegedly achieved, the two seem close in performance.

For reference, the Exynos 1080 has reportedly achieved 693,600 on AnTuTu. The Snapdragon 888, on the other hand, got 735,439.

Exynos 1080 AnTuTu score

Qualcomm's new chip also doesn't have a significant lead over the Exynos 1080 on Geekbench. The Snapdragon 888 has scored 1,135, and 3,794 on the single-core and multi-core tests, respectively. In comparison, the Exynos 1080 apparently managed 888 and 3,244 points.

Exynos 1080 Geekbench results

The Exynos 1080 has lower specs than Qualcomm's premium chip, which strongly implies that the Exynos 2100 will outdo the Snapdragon 888.

Snapdragon 888 benchmarks

A new rumor paints a worrisome picture for the Exynos 2100

There is a minor possibility that the Snapdragon Galaxy S21 will outperform the Exynos version, and that too by a wide margin. That's because leaker Roland Quandt has cautioned that the Exynos 2100 could turn out to be a 7nm chipset, and not a 5nm SoC as expected.

7nm can't bear such specifications, I believe it is 5nm
— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) December 18, 2020

The chances of that happening are slim, given that the mid-tier Exynos 1080 is based on the 5nm fabrication tech. Additionally, it also looks like Exynos 2100's specs call for a more advanced fabrication process.

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Anam Hamid is a computer scientist turned tech journalist who has a keen interest in the tech world, with a particular focus on smartphones and tablets. She has previously written for Android Headlines and has also been a ghostwriter for several tech and car publications. Anam is not a tech hoarder and believes in using her gadgets for as long as possible. She is concerned about smartphone addiction and its impact on future generations, but she also appreciates the convenience that phones have brought into our lives. Anam is excited about technological advancements like folding screens and under-display sensors, and she often wonders about the future of technology. She values the overall experience of a device more than its individual specs and admires companies that deliver durable, high-quality products. In her free time, Anam enjoys reading, scrolling through Reddit and Instagram, and occasionally refreshing her programming skills through tutorials.