Samsung Announces 14nm FinFET for Exynos 7

While we’ve known about the existence of the Exynos 7420 for a while now, we didn’t really know what to expect until recently. Today, it seems that Samsung is ready to start disclosing at least a few details about an upcoming Exynos 7 SoC, which is likely to be the Exynos 7420.

At a high level Exynos 7 will have four Cortex A57s clocked at 2.1 GHz, in addition to four Cortex A53s along with an LPDDR4-capable memory interface. According to Samsung Tomorrow, we can expect a 20% increase to device performance, which is likely a reference to clock speed, and 35% lower power consumption. In addition, there is a reference to a 30% productivity gain, which is likely to be referencing performance per watt. Samsung claims that these figures come from a comparison to their 20nm HKMG process, which we’ve examined before with the Exynos 5433 in the Note 4 Exynos review.

Although there is no direct statement of which version of 14nm is used for this upcoming Exynos 7 Octa, judging by how this is the first 14nm IC to come from Samsung it’s likely that this SoC will use 14LPE, which focuses on reducing leakage and power consumption rather than switching speed.

The Meizu MX4 Pro Review

Meizu has been one of the upcoming Chinese manufacturers that we haven’t had the chance to really cover here at AnandTech. With the Meizu MX4Pro however, we have on our hands one of the increasingly strong offerings that we see coming from the Chinese mainland. The 5.46″ smartphone seems to deliver both on specs and user experience. To find out if it does, read on for the full review.

ARM A53/A57/T760 investigated – Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Exynos Review

It’s been a few months since Josh had the opportunity to review the Note 4. The defining characteristic is that this was the variant with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 805 SoC running as the heart of the device. This version is found in devices shipping in North America, Western Europe, China, and Japan. While these markets have now been served by Qualcomm’s silicon offerings, Samsung is now back on track at trying to expand its marketshare of in-house Exynos SoCs. As such, all other markets (with small exceptions) seem to be getting served Exynos variants of the Note 4. To find out how this version performs, read on for the full review.