Here's the chipset that could be powering the Samsung Galaxy S9

While Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 will likely be powering the Samsung Galaxy S9 in the US, the rest of the world will probably get a new Exynos chipset, and Samsung’s just announced the one that it might well use.

Dubbed the Exynos 9810, this is the first proper 9 series chipset from the company, as the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 and Samsung Galaxy S8 both use the Exynos 8895.

Samsung describes this new chip as its “latest flagship processor” and notes that it has “3rd-generation custom CPU cores, upgraded GPU, and gigabit LTE modem with industry-first 6CA support.”

So it sounds like an upgrade in all areas from the Exynos 8895, and that last bit of the description is worth a closer look.

Faster than fast

6CA (six carrier aggregation) means that whatever phone has that chip will support download speeds of up to 1.2Gbps, which is an industry first and up from the 5CA-powered 1Gbps download speeds that the Samsung Galaxy S8 theoretically tops out at.

It’s a 20% improvement in other words, and should mean that the Galaxy S9 – or whatever phones get this chip – can download an HD movie within 10 seconds, and the chip could also eliminate buffering when live-streaming or having video calls.

That part of the chip isn’t new information, as Samsung had already revealed it was working on 6CA back in July, but until we get more information on things like the upgraded GPU it’s the most specific example of what the Exynos 9810 will be capable of.

One potentially less impressive aspect of the new chipset is that it’s a 10nm one, which means it’s the same size as the previous generation.

That’s slightly surprising, as The Investor previously reported that Samsung would use a smaller, more efficient 8nm chip for the Galaxy S9, but that now looks unlikely.

This could put the Exynos chip at a slight disadvantage to the Snapdragon 845, as that’s rumored to be made using a 7nm process, but as both models are sure to be among the fastest phones around, you probably won’t notice.