Samsung finally makes the Exynos 1280 SoC's specs official

For some reason, Samsung never bothered to launch the Exynos 1280 alongside the first few smartphones to run on the processor. In fact, it is only now that the OEM has formally introduced it as new 5G silicon, ostensibly intended for mid-range smartphones. Some of its specs could be guessed at already, although they have just been set in stone for the first time.

To this end, the Exynos 1280 is now officially a 5 nanometer (or 5nm) processor, made of 2 ARM Cortex-A78 cores with a max speed of 2.4Ghz and 6 Cortex-A55s that go up to 2GHz at most out of the box. They are joined by a Mali-G68 GPU in the new in-house Samsung SoC.

The 1280 also has an NPU for AI purposes. Samsung does not mention a name or generation for this unit, although it is apparently capable of 4.3 TOPS, and is thus rated to handle tasks such as object recognition and tracking, although the OEM intimates that it is mostly intended to control cameras in phones like the Galaxy A53.

On that note, the 1280 could support cameras of up to 108MP in resolution, although not in cases of multiple rear shooters. It can also handle 4K recording at 30 fps, and drive 120Hz displays of FHD+ resolutions or lower. The processor can also form part of a Wi-Fi 5/Bluetooth 5.2/GNSS/FM radio Rx-capable device with up to LPDDR4x RAM and UFS2.2.

Finally, the Exynos 1280 also of course integrates a 5G modem, good for a download speed of up to 2.55 gigabits (Gb/s) and up to 1.28Gb/s in terms of upload speed, over either sub-6GHz and mmWave using any number of SIMs found in a given device.

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