Exynos 1080: Samsung executive claims upcoming mid-range chipset will outperform the Snapdragon 865 on a 5 nm node with ARM Cortex-A78 and Mali-G78 cores

Samsung is planning to replace the Exynos 980 with the Exynos 1080, according to a new interview with Dr Pan Xuebao of the Samsung Semiconductor China Research Institute. Just over a year has passed since Samsung unveiled the Exynos 980, its mid-range answer to the Snapdragon 765 and Snapdragon 765G. Samsung manufactures the Exynos 980 on an 8 nm node, but Dr Xuebao states that the company has switched to a 5 nm one for the Exynos 1080.

Unsurprisingly, the Exynos 1080 will also offer 5G connectivity.  Additionally, Dr Xuebao declared that the Exynos 1080 would utilise ARM's Cortex-A78 processor cores. ARM announced these in May, promising 20% performance improvements over the Cortex-A77 cores and a 50% power reduction at comparable performance levels.

The Exynos 1080 will feature ARM's Mali-G78 GPU cores too, which would be two-generations newer than the ones Samsung included in the Exynos 980. These advancements will apparently yield AnTuTu v8 scores of above 650,000 points, which would put the Exynos 1080 around 10% clear of the Snapdragon 865.

The Exynos 1080 is expected debut in the Vivo X60 series. MySmartPrice alleges that the Vivo X60 series will arrive before the end of 2020 in China, but it may be early 2021 before the series reaches global audiences.