Galaxy S9's Snapdragon 845 and Exynos 9810 vs Apple A11 features comparison
Recently, Samsung announced that its second-generation 10nm LPP processors are entering mass production, while back in October the company touted the 8nm process as "production ready" only. Separately, Samsung informed us that the 10nm LPP chips are being churned out by its new S3 factory in Korea, but simply that the "7nm FinFET process technology with EUV (Extreme Ultra Violet) will also be mass produced at S3," not falling into any kind of timeframe promises, though word through the grapevine puts 7/8nm chips on the conveyor belts in H2 2018.
That leaves only 10nm chipsets in mass production as we speak (likely the already-announced Exynos 9810 and Snapdragon 845), at a time that is getting awfully close to the rumored early release of the Galaxy S9. Thus, there is a strong possibility that the phone may come powered by precisely these two chipsets, that is why we are comparing their features below for your viewing pleasure, and throwing in Apple's current A11 juggernaut, plus Huawei's latest Kirin 970, as found in the Mate 10 Pro, for reference.
| Snapdragon 845 | Exynos 9810* | Kirin 970 | Apple A11 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Production process | 10nm LPP (Samsung) | 10nm LPP (Samsung) | 10nm (TSMC FF) | 10nm (TSMC FF) |
| Processor cores | 4x Kryo 385 @ 2.8GHz (custom Cortex-A75) + 4x custom Cortex-A55 @ 1.8GHz | Likely 4x Exynos M3 + 4x Cortex-A55 | 4x Cortex-A73 @ 2.4GHz 4x Cortex A53 @ 1.8GHz | 2x Monsoon @ 2.4 GHz + 4x Mistral cores |
| GPU | Adreno 630 | Likely Mali-G72 | Mali-G72 MP12 @ 850MHz | Apple custom tri-core |
| Modem | Snapdragon X20 LTE (5xCA) (download: Cat 18, up to 1200 Mbit/s; upload: Cat 13, up to 150 Mbit/s), 4x4 MIMO | LTE Cat 18 (6xCA) (download: Cat 18, up to 1200 Mbit/s; upload: Cat 13, up to 150 Mbit/s), 4x4 MIMO | LTE Cat.18 (5xCA) (download: Cat 18, up to 1200 Mbit/s; upload: Cat 13, up to 150 Mbit/s), 4x4 MIMO | Customized Qualcomm X16 or Intel XMM7480 (download: up to 600 Mbit/s), 2x2 MIMO |
| AI co-processor | Yes | Likely (DeePhi) | Yes | Yes, "Neural Engine" |
| Video encode | 4K HDR at 60fps | Likely 4K HDR at 60fps | 4K at 30fps | 4K HDR at 60fps |
| Misc. | Dual SIM dual VoLTE support Bluetooth 5.0 with proprietary enhancements for ultra-low power wireless earbuds 6 satellite systems: GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, SBAS | n/a | Fast image recognition | M11 motion coprocessor, and a new ISP for computational photography and wide color capture |
*Samsung hasn't detailed the 9810 fully yet
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