It is so far the only confirmed detail known about the new phone Samsung is planning to unveil in London on May 3.
The chip is able to power a high definition display with a resolution of up to 1366 x 768 and “incorporates a full HD 30 frame per second video hardware codec engine for high resolution 1080p video recording and play-back”, Samsung said. It will run what the company describes as “high-quality camera functionality” and an offer an HDMI 1.4 interface.
Running at 1.4GHz, the chip is based on Arm’s Cortex A9 chip. Processors with multiple cores are able to process more information in parallel, allowing calculation-intensive applications such as gaming and video editing.
“The application processor is a crucial element in providing our customers with PC-like experience on mobile devices," claimed Hankil Yoon, Samsung’s senior vice president of mobile product strategy. "Samsung’s next Galaxy device, which will be officially announced soon, offers uncompromised performance and ground breaking multi-tasking features, thanks to Exynos 4 Quad’s powerful performance and efficient energy management technology.”
Samsung’s Taehoon Kim added that “Since all the cores must share a single battery, the power management and efficiency in the limited battery capacity are indispensable for mobile computing devices. Given the diverse functionalities consumers are demanding from their mobile devices today, the Exynos 4 Quad meets those high-performance needs while keeping power consumption very low.”
Samsung has released online teasers for its forthcoming Galaxy device, but revealed few actual facts. It will be unveiled on Thursday May 3 at Earl's Court in London.
Rumours suggest, however, that the device will be the official phone of the London Olympics. According to details posted briefly on Amazon’s German website, it will have a 4.7-inch Super AMOLED screen, 12 megapixel camera, and run the Ice Cream Sandwich version of Android.
Samsung is also rumoured to be likely to announce its own cloud-storage system, competing with Dropbox, offered with the rival HTC One X, and with Apple’s own iCloud. It is likely to offer synchronisation for movies, music and pictures. HTC’s One X is also one of the few phones currently on the market to use a quad core processor.
Samsung’s claims of improved battery life for its chip are, however, likely to make a relatively small overall impact because power use is largely down to mobile phone screens. The Exynos shares the same size as its predecessor, which Samsung says means it can also easily be slotted into existing designs from other manufacturers.
