From early February last year when Qualcomm and Samsung rekindled their partnership, things are looking rosy for both players. Galaxy S10, S10+, S10e and S10 5G for selected regions come powered by Snapdragon.
Snapdragon 855 7nm
Galaxy S10 is powered by the Snapdragon 855 while the Galaxy S10 5G comes powered by Snapdragon 855 and X50 multi-gigabit modem. Last night we checked the European Galaxy S10 SKUs and learned that these will come with Exynos 9820. Samsung is again dual sourcing which is barely a surprise, as this is a smart business thing to do.
The Snapdragon 855 that will dominantly be shipping in the USA comes with Kryo 485 CPU built on Arm Cortex Technology, offering up to a 45 percent performance improvement over Snapdragon 845. The new Adreno 640 GPU supports up to 20% faster graphics. The Snapdragon 855 is 7nm while Samsung’s own 8920 is 8nm and has two custom, two Cortex A75 and quad A55 cores.
Snapdragon 855 CPU comes with one 2.84 GHz Kryo 485, three 2.42 GHz Kryo 485 and four 1.8 GHz Kryo 485 cores based on Cortex A55. The 2.84 and three 2.42 GHz Kryo 485 cores are based on ARM Cortex A76 core.
Spectra 380 ISP and Hexagon AI
Samsung is making a big push with S10 and S10+ and its computational photography that with US version get supported by the AI powered Spectra 380 ISP that enables some neat features including real-time object recognition, segmentation, and replacement to allow users to isolate and swap out backgrounds and objects – in real-time. Hexagon Tensor Accelerator delivers 3x the AI performance compared to the previous generation and, as you know, AI plays a key role in making a good photo or helping the voice assistant on your phone to understand you.
3D ultrasonic sensor
Qualcomm scored a big push for its 3D in screen ultrasonic sensor business as this also found its way to S10 and S10+. This sensor uses ultrasonic waves and not the light source as the sensors we’ve seen in most 2018 phones. The back light degrades pixels over time, while ultrasonic won't. Galaxy S10 in-display Ultrasonic Fingerprint Scanner is more secure and reliable compared to the alternatives. Qualcomm says that Secure Processing Unit (SPU) helps to keep precious data away from prying eyes.
Qualcomm’s X50 5G
The Galaxy S10 5G also features Snapdragon 855 and X50 5G modem, at least for the US market. This is a big push for Qualcomm’s 2019 5G initiative as the X50 supports both sub 6 GHz and mmWaves. The X50 is expected in more than 30 commercial 5G products in the months to come. The real 5G gets you the multi gigabit speeds with lower latency compared to 4G LTE.
“We are extremely proud to share our technology inventions and help bring 5G to the world through cutting-edge devices like the Samsung Galaxy S10”, said Alex Katouzian, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Mobile, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “The Samsung Galaxy S10 powered by the Snapdragon 855 Mobile Platform is designed to deliver the experiences today’s consumers demand.”
“Samsung Electronics and Qualcomm Technologies are committed to delivering breakthrough mobile experiences to consumers and the Galaxy S10 is no exception”, said TM Roh, President and Head of Mobile R&D, IT & Mobile Communications Division, Samsung Electronics. “The Galaxy S10, based on the Snapdragon 855 Mobile Platform, is the first commercial smartphone to support multi-gigabit speeds and we’re eager to see all the ways 5G will impact the world.”
