The release date of the Samsung Galaxy S21 is very close and the company has started testing the features of the upcoming phone. The first was a preview of the Samsung Unpacked launch event, and now the company has released its new Exynos 2100 chipset. Samsung unveiled its new chipset in a YouTube live stream two days before the launch of the Galaxy S21, scheduled for the 14th. from January. This chipset is what we'll likely see in Galaxy S21 phones in Europe and Asia, as opposed to models elsewhere that are rumored to use Qualcomm's Snapdragon equivalent. This split of chipsets is often used by Samsung, much to the chagrin of Exynos users, as the chipsets often return slower speeds. Interestingly, Samsung kicked off its Exynos 2100 livestream with a slideshow of social media comments from people criticizing Exynos chipsets – it clearly understands that its own technology isn't nearly as popular as Qualcomm's alternative. The new Exynos 2100 was launched under the banner “Exynos is back”, so we expect this processor to perform better than what we have seen in previous phones. During the live stream, Samsung detailed some features of the Exynos 2100 chipset: it will apparently be 10% faster than its predecessors and 20% more power efficient. But the real news comes from the camera features that the Exynos 2100 supports, which hints at more camera features on the phone.
Samsung Galaxy S21 camera features
The Exynos 2100 chipset can take photos at 200 MP, a much higher resolution than smartphone cameras. Does this mean that the Galaxy S21 will have a 200MP camera? Probably not, it was probably just an attempt by Samsung to show off their processor. As for the actual features, the Exynos 2100 can support six different cameras, four of which are recording simultaneously. This seems especially useful for the company's Single Take mode, which uses multiple cameras at once to take great photos. Perhaps now it can incorporate the supposed additional rear lenses of the Galaxy S21 Ultra, or also the front camera. The Exynos 2100 chipset also supports 4K video recording at a high frame rate of 120fps, double the 60fps some phones can achieve and the more limited 30fps. Video playback also reaches 8K resolution with 60 fps. Samsung also said that the Exynos 2100 will lead to improved visuals, with scene optimization and HDR capable of using more processing power and smarter AI. Perhaps the already massive list of settings recognized by Samsung phone cameras is even longer now. Overall, the launch of the Exynos 2100 indicates that the Samsung Galaxy S21 has improvements to some features we've seen before, but not necessarily new. We'll have to wait for the launch event on January 14 to get all the information - check back on TechRadar and then for all the news.