Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Samsung is working on a new Exynos 1280 chipset for budget phones

Despite Qualcomm’s dominance over the mobile chipset segment in recent years, Samsung has been persistent at pushing its Exynos lineup of processors in its phones. The South Korean manufacturer equips most of its phones with its series of homegrown chipsets, and if a new leak is to be believed, Samsung is developing a new Exynos chipset for entry-level phones. This leak comes on the back of rumors that Samsung wants a majority of its 2022 devices to run on Exynos processors. 

The name of the new processor is believed to be the Exynos 1280 mobile chipset. Now, there’s a lot we don’t know about this mysterious processor, but the leak has revealed that the Exynos 1280 is a step down from the Exynos 1080. Samsung unveiled the Exynos 1080 late last year, and it is by no means a slouch. In fact, it’s a powerful midrange chip used in Vivo’s X60 series of flagship phones. Given all this, it is a bit puzzling to understand what the tipster means by “entry-level” phones. Moreover, it is also possible that the Exynos 1280 debuts on a non-Samsung phone, similar to the Exynos 1080. 

Since this rumored Exynos chip looks like a part of the Exynos 1080 line, it is likely that it will adopt some specifications from it. We assume that it’ll be built upon the 5nm process and also come equipped with 5G. The Exynos 1080 uses a cluster of four Cortex-A78 CPU cores and four Cortex-A55 CPU cores. From what the leak says, it could be that the new Exynos 1280 has the same lower-clocked cores. The Exynos 1080 also comes with support for 200MP cameras and QHD+ displays. We can expect at least some of these features on the Exynos 1280. However, these are all presumptions for now.

Samsung has also joined with AMD to offer cutting-edge RDNA2 graphics on mobile devices for the first time. The first phone to feature the capability is expected to be the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S22.

Editors' Recommendations

Abdul Q
Abdul can be tagged as a true blue smartphone enthusiast. As part of his professional career, he has contributed to a number…
Samsung just did something strange to its newest Android phone
The Samsung Galaxy S23 FE laying face-down on a table.

Earlier this month, Samsung announced a slew of new products to end 2023 on a high note. Alongside some new tablets and a pair of earbuds, one of those new products was the Galaxy S23 FE. It looks a lot like the other S23 phones released earlier this year, but it has some lower specs and a cheaper price. When Samsung announced the S23 FE on October 3, it said the phone would be available for $600.

However, it looks like something changed between then and now. The Galaxy S23 FE officially went on sale on October 26, but it doesn't cost the $600 Samsung claimed it would. If you buy the phone from Samsung's website, you'll have to pay $630 for the base model with 128GB of storage — a seemingly random increase of $30. Samsung didn't previously confirm how much the 256GB variant would cost, but it's currently listed on Samsung's site for $690.

Read more
Fixing your broken Samsung phone is about to get easier
The screens on the Galaxy A54 and Galaxy S23 Ultra.

Galaxy S23 Ultra (right) and Galaxy A54 Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Samsung has 2,000 Authorized Service Centers (ASC) across the U.S. that allow it to cover more than 80% of the U.S. population with two-hour repair service, plus more than 700 UbreakiFix locations and 200 Best Buy stores that offer same-day repairs. However, it's a big country, which means that even with this extensive network of repair providers, there are still places where you might find it challenging to get in-person repairs done on your Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra or Galaxy A54.

Read more
T-Mobile still has the fastest 5G, but its rivals are catching up
T-Mobile smartphone.

For most of 2023, we’ve seen median 5G speeds among the big three carriers remain fairly stable, leading us to believe that things were beginning to reach a plateau. However, it now seems that this may only be true at the very top end of the 5G speed race.

Today, Ookla released its latest market research on 5G speeds for the third quarter of 2023, and it’s an interesting mix of surprising and not-so-surprising developments in the 5G market.

Read more