Samsung has announced the new Exynos 7 Series 9610 processor, which will be powering its mid to upper range smartphones like the ‘A’ series smartphones. Some of the high end features that were introduced with the Exynos 9810 SoC have now trickled down to the mid-range 9610 processor. The new microprocessor is built on a 10nm node, features AI based image processing and supports capturing slow motion videos, same as the Exynos 9810.
The new Exynos 9610 makes use of a neural network for vision and image processing which the company says allows for “enhanced face detection”, single camera out-focusing and augmented low-light images. The face detection algorithm has also been tweaked for detecting faces which are partially covered or not facing the device, says Samsung. The SoC also uses smart depth sensing algorithms for capturing enhanced bokeh or portrait mode shots with a single camera sensor, similar to the Pixel 2 smartphones. Low light photography is also said to improve as the processor can “cleverly” merge multiple frames and, enhance the noise-to-signal ratio and brightness using image processing.
“The Exynos 7 Series 9610 is our latest mobile processor that delivers on added power and speed,” said Ben Hur, vice president of System LSI marketing at Samsung Electronics. “But more importantly, it sets a new performance standard for high-end devices with its deep learning vision-image processing solution and slow motion video capabilities that change the way we engage with our mobile devices.”
Similar to how Exynos 9810 allows for capturing 960fps videos, the Exynos 9610 is capable of shooting 480fps slow motion videos in full HD and 4K at 120fps. The CPU’s predecessor, the Exynos 7885, sports a six-core design with two high-performance Cortex A73 cores and the new SoC is an octa-core processor packed with with four cortex A73 running at 2.3GHz and four A53 cores at 1.6GHz. It is coupled with a second-generation Bifrost-based ARM Mali-G72 GPU, which is same as the Exynos 9810.
The Exynos 9610 SoC comes embedded with a low power core based on Cortex-M4F which enables always on sensing applications like gesture recognition and context awareness. Owing to a category 13 LTE modem with 3CA (carrier aggregation), it can support maximum download and upload speeds of 600Mbps and 150Mbps respectively. It also packs 802.11ac 2×2 MIMO Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, and an FM radio transceiver.