Samsung is quietly rebuilding it’s portfolio of midrange SoCs and it has recently announced a new one, the Exynos 1480. In this article, we’ll quickly look at and review the specs.
The Exynos 1480 is an upper midrange SoC that is made by Samsung for exclusive use on its high end Galaxy A series devices. This SoC is the successor to last year’s Exynos 1380. The Exynos 1480 has already made its debut on the Samsung Galaxy A55 5G.
This device is very much anticipated by Samsung fans and stans, but I’m sure that the gamers and heavy users among you will want to know how well this phone performs. A smartphone’s performance as we all know is tied to the SoC. This is why we’re putting the Exynos 1480 under a firm spotlight.
Exynos 1480 Specs
The Exynos 1480 has the following specifications:
| Specs | |
|---|---|
| CPU cores |
|
| GPU | Samsung Xclipse 530 (1306MHz) |
| Process | 4nm Samsung LPP+ |
| ISA | ARMv8.2-A |
| Benchmarks |
|
| RAM | LPDDR4X, LPDDR5 (3200MHz) |
| Storage | UFS 3.1 |
| ISP | Samsung ISP |
| NPU | AI Engine with 6K MAC NPU |
| Camera | 200MP |
| Video | 4K @60fps |
| Network | Exynos 5G Modem, LTE Cat 18, Sub-6GHz & mmWave 5G |
| Bluetooth | Bluetooth 5.3 |
| WiFi | WiFi 6E |
| Display | FHD+ @144Hz |
With the main specs out of the way, let’s get into the analysis.
Performance
The Exynos 1480 keeps the same four Cortex A78 and four Cortex A55 CPU cores from it’s predecessor (the Exynos 1380). However, these CPU cores have a much faster clock speed and thus offer better performance. This SoC has a decent chunk of processing power and can tackle most native apps and tasks thrown at it. For context, it is on the same level of performance as SoCs like:
- Snapdragon 865
- Dimensity 8020
- Dimensity 7200 Ultra
- Exynos 1480
- Exynos 990
- Kirin 990 5G
- Dimensity 7200
- Snapdragon 7 Gen 1
As you can see, the Exynos 1480 is in great company when it comes to performance.
Gaming
Previous Samsung Midrange SoCs have been largely underwhelming when it comes to gaming. This could be attributed to the use of Mali GPUs from ARM so Samsung has switched to AMD. The Exynos 1480 uses a Samsung Xclipse 530 which is a modified AMD graphics card. We are still watching this GPU to see how it performs, but it does promise a lot of good things. It can surely handle a lot of great titles like eFootball, CoDM, Call of Duty, Asphalt etc. But it remains to be seen if it can tackle demanding games like Warzone, NBA 2K, Fortnite etc.
Multitasking and Storage
This SoC has support for both LPPDR4X and LPDDR5 RAM. The LPDDR5 RAM is a high end RAM type that offers snappy multitasking and app switching. It also supports up to UFS 3.1 embedded storage. These should greatly enhance the user experience.
Cameras and video
The Exynos 1480 comes armed with a Samsung Exynos ISP and an AI Engine with 6K MAC NPU. These enable this SoC to support cameras of up to 200MP and record/playback videos of 4K at 60fps. This is fairly standard for most upper Midrange SoCs in this category. What is more important is the quality of the software that is paired with the hardware. This will play a huge part in the quality of the photo and video output.
Connectivity
This SoC has a wide range of connectivity options such as 3G, 4G (LTE Cat. 18), 5G (Sub-6GHz and mmWave), Bluetooth 5.3, WiFi 6E, NFC and USB 2.1. Samsung has covered all of the connection bases very well.
Battery life
Samsung at some point competed favourably with TSMC and had a world class manufacturing. At some point, Qualcomm had to rely on their expertise to manufacture their Flagships. However, after the disasters that were the Snapdragon 888 and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, a lot of chip manufacturers moved over to TSMC.
So Samsung has been left to build back their reputation slowly. The Exynos 1480 is built on their cutting edge 4nm process. If it does handle battery life and heating well, I’m sure that the customers will return.
Conclusion
The Exynos 1480 is a midrange SoC that should compete favourably with most of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7 series SoCs. So keep an eye for future comparisons on this SoC. This one offers decent CPU performance, gaming, multitasking and multimedia. It’s still early days but Samsung may come good once more.
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