Unisoc T9100 (T820) vs Samsung Exynos 9810 vs Samsung Exynos 9820

Unisoc T9100 (T820)

The Unisoc T9100 (formely Unisoc T820) is a mid range SoC for Android based smartphones and tablets. It integrates an octa-core CPU with three clusters. One fast ARM Cortex-A76 clocked at up to 2.7 GHz, three more A76 performance cores clocked at up to 2.3 GHz and a power efficiency cluster of four ARM-Cortex-A55 cores with up to 2.1 GHz. The integrated memory controller supports LPDDR4/4X with up to 2133 MHz (2x 16 Bit). The integrated ISP supports two main cameras and two subsidiary cameras (up to 108 MPix). The integrated graphics card is an ARM Mali-G57 MC4 (4 cores) at up to 850 MHz. Unisoc also specifies that the T9100 offers hardware AI acceleration with up to 8.0 TOPS peak performance of the NPU.

The chip is manufactured on the modern 6nm EUV process.

Samsung Exynos 9810

The Samsung Exynos 9 9810 is a mobile SoC for smartphones and tablets. It was announced early 2018 and should be integrated in the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S9 series (at least partly). It integrates eight CPU cores (octa core) in two clusters. The performance cluster integrates four Samsung M3 at 2.9 GHz and the power efficiency cluster four small ARM Cortex-A55 cores at 1.9 GHz. The Samsung M3 cores are based on Samsungs own design and now offer a wider pipeline, improved cache memory and bigger caches. This leads to a twice as fast single-core performance and a 40 percent improved multi-core performance according to Samsung (most likely compared to the previous Exynos 8898).

The integrated LTE modem also got a siginifcant upgrade and now supports Cat.18/13 LTE for up to 1.2 Gbps download and 200 Mbps upload. This is achieved with 6x20 MHz CA, 256-QAM in download and 2x20 MHz in upload.

As a GPU, Samsung integrates a ARM Mali G72MP18 (only 18 clusters, compared to the 20 clusters of the predecessor G71MP20). Most likely Samsung increases performance due to a higher core clock of the graphics card.

The memory controller looks similar to the 8898 and supports LPDDR4x 1800 MHz. The video engine now also supports 10 bit videos (as before 4k120 H.265/HEVC, H.264 and VP9 de- and encoding). 

The SoC is produced at Samsung in the new 10nm LPP process (the Exynos 8898 still used the 10nm LPE process) that should also help with some of the performance gains.

Samsung Exynos 9820

The Samsung Exynos 9 9820 is a mobile SoC for smartphones and tablets. It was announced late 2018 and was first integrated in the Samsung Galaxy S10 smartphones early 2019. The SoC integrates three clusters of processor cores with different architectures. Two big Samsung custom M4 cores clock up to 2.7 GHz and deliver peak performance. Two additional ARM Cortex-A75 are also for performance tasks and clock at up to 2.3 GHz. Finally, four small and power efficient ARM-Cortex A55 cores clock at up to 1.9 GHz are in the third cluster. The different clusters can run simultaneously thanks to DinamIQ.

The integrated LTE modem supports LTE-Advanced Pro Cat.20 (8CA 2 Gbps download, 3CA 316 Mbps upload). The integrated graphics card is a ARM Mali G76MP12 with 12 cores.

The performance of the CPU part is positioned in the high end segment for smartphone processors. The single core performance is, thanks to the big custom cores, a strong suit of the CPU and reaches the levels of Apples mobile SoCs. The direct competitor Snapdragon 855 can be left behind in single-core benchmarks like Geekbench and operates on par in multi-core benchmarks. The predecessor Exynos 9810 can be bested by around 17% in our first benchmarks with the Galaxy S10 Plus.

The SoC is produced at Samsung in the new 8nm LPP process that should also help with some of the performance gains.