The Galaxy S23 series, Samsung Electronics’ flagship smartphone unveiled on February 1, boasts the best and most powerful GPU, which enhances performance by 41% compared to the previous version, and Ray Tracing, which brings true-to-life lighting to mobile gaming, have gained the attention of gamers worldwide.

▲ Ray Tracing technology, which creates an immersive mobile gaming experience, on the Galaxy S23 series, was introduced at Galaxy Unpacked 2023

Samsung Newsroom sat down with the developers of Ray Tracing, recently introduced to the Galaxy S23 series, to understand the story behind how the team upgraded the mobile gaming experience. Read on to learn more about one of the biggest leaps in smartphone gaming graphics in years.

Ray Tracing: Level Up Your Gaming Experience With True-to-Life Graphics

Ray Tracing is the latest rendering method that manifests graphic effects in real time by tracing rays of light. The Galaxy S23 series’ GPU is equipped with special-purpose hardware to accelerate these ray tracing simulations similar to a desktop GPU, displaying shadows and light reflections in mobile games in a much more realistic manner.

▲ (From the left) Jungwoo Kim and Joonyong Park, the developers of Ray Tracing technology from the System Platform R&D Group of Samsung Electronics’ MX Business

System Platform Development Group’s Jungwoo Kim, who managed the GPU development for the Galaxy S23 series, described Ray Tracing technology as “the ultimate graphic rendering method.”

“Ray Tracing is a complex simulation that traces how the optic nerve of an eye receives a ray of light after being reflected, refracted or diffracted by an object,” said Kim. “It’s very similar to how light is actually processed.”

“The previous rasterization technique is limited, resulting in awkward and inaccurate expressions,” said Joonyong Park, who managed GPU technical support and both internal and external cooperation for this new product. “When it comes to the shadow effect, for instance, the previous method used to project an object on a scene to create a shadow map in advance and adjust that on the object again. On the other hand, Ray Tracing simulates the actual effect of how shadows are formed, which appears accurately and realistically onscreen — so users can enjoy more natural-looking graphics.”

Bridging the Gap Between Desktop and Mobile Graphics With the Galaxy S23 Series

Since 2010, Samsung has focused on breaking down the barriers between console, desktop and mobile by expanding the performance and range of its graphics API (application programming interface). By partnering with major industry players, Samsung has led the way in standardizing its latest technology as the common API. In doing so, more companies can easily apply the latest technology to more games and expand their relevant ecosystems.

“In 2016, we standardized the next-generation graphics API called Vulkan released by the Khronos Group and succeeded in commercialization through the Galaxy S7,” said Kim. “But, we’ve been working on advanced GPU development with partners like Epic Games and Unity to optimize the performance of Android games since 2015, before Vulkan was integrated into Galaxy devices. The optimization code we acquired by working together was provided to game developers first and made the successful case for Vulkan and engine optimization. The achievement was presented at various developer conferences.”

▲ Jungwoo Kim from the System Platform R&D Group of Samsung Electronics’ MX Business

In line with the recent rising trends in cross-platform games, Samsung rapidly applied desktop GPU technology to their mobile GPU. “With close cooperation with the AP vendors, we’ve continued to improve the performance of the latest mobile GPU for flagship products,” said Park. “With the rise in consumers demanding that the graphic quality on their mobile devices matches the quality of consoles, we’ve been preparing to offer Ray Tracing technology in mobile game engines since two years ago,” he said, describing his team’s proactive effort to lead this mobile innovation.

Multi-Player Collaboration Driving Mobile Performance

The developers cooperated with Samsung R&D Institute Ukraine (SRUKR) and various partner companies, including Epic Games, the developer of Unreal Engine, to prepare the best graphics.

▲ Galaxy Unpacked 2023 demo content was created in partnership with Epic Games. Compared to the previous rasterization rendering method (right), the Ray Tracing method (left) simulates more realistic graphics.

Kim explained that the demo contents introduced at the Galaxy Unpacked 2023 were a team effort. “This is an area that we’ve been working on in collaboration with a game engine developer and game developers,” said Kim. “We kept making various attempts for efficient rendering. As a result, we were able to overcome challenges by reducing the number of computations while maintaining the same level of quality.”

▲ Content demonstration developed by Samsung Electronics. Compared to the previous method of rasterization rendering (below), Ray Tracing technology (above) allows for more realistic graphics with Dynamic Shadow.

▲ Joonyong Park from the System Platform R&D Group of Samsung Electronics’ MX Business

Park also shared an episode from when he was working on the Galaxy S7 product development.

“I remember developing a content demonstration at the Epic Games head office in North Carolina in the U.S.,” said Park. “We successfully rendered a demo game where a chicken character appeared using the Vulkan API for the first time. As soon as the chicken character appeared for the first time after fixing an error, everyone from Epic Games, SRUKR and colleagues from MX R&D team all cheered. Then, we all celebrated with a dinner party, where we all ate fried chicken.” Park thanked his colleagues with whom he had worked so hard to achieve this feat.

Galaxy S23 Series Opens a New Paradigm for Mobile Gaming

So what does the future look like in which Ray Tracing technology is commercialized? “From now on, I expect the pipeline of creating and consuming graphic content to change in a way that is aligned with Ray Tracing,” said Park. “In this process, we expect that mobile devices with both portability and high-performance hardware on par with consoles will contribute to the changes.”

▲ Ray Tracing technology on the Galaxy S23

“You can certainly expect an eye-catching gaming experience,” said the developers of Ray Tracing, speaking to the fans looking forward to the new Galaxy flagship’s gaming performance. The developers also shared their plans to use this technology widely, starting with the Galaxy S23 series.

“Ray Tracing technology is now only starting to go mobile. Since Samsung has been researching and preparing this technology for a long time, our company will lead the industry and quickly expand this technology,” said Kim. “Our next goal is to find the optimal method to apply Ray Tracing in many mobile devices and provide a great gaming experience to the users.”

▲ (From the left) Jungwoo Kim and Joonyong Park from the System Platform R&D Group of Samsung Electronics’ MX Business pose with the Galaxy S23, which introduces Ray Tracing to mobile gaming.

“The mobile games that support Ray Tracing aren’t available in the market yet, but if there’s a game company that shows an interest in new mobile GPU technology, it will be more than welcome,” said Park. When asked about the future of mobile gaming performance, Park replied that they were “working very hard to apply Ray Tracing technology to more mobile games.”

The developers’ long-term vision is to present even more immersive mobile gaming experiences with realistic graphics in the future.

Watch the video below to learn more about Ray Tracing technology on the Galaxy S23 series.

This year’s event, attended by more than 800 customers and partners, featured presentations from Samsung’s Memory and System LSI business leaders — including Jung-bae Lee, President and Head of Memory Business; Yong-In Park, President and Head of System LSI Business; and Jaeheon Jeong, Executive Vice President and Head of Device Solutions (DS) Americas Office — on the company’s latest advancements and its vision for the future.

System LSI Business Highlights

In the morning session of this year’s Tech Day, the System LSI Business emphasized its goal of becoming a ‘total solution fabless’ through maximizing the synergy between its unique and wide-range product lineup. As Samsung Electronics’ fabless IC design house, the System LSI Business currently offers around 900 products, which include SoC (System on Chip), image sensor, modem, display driver IC (DDI), power management IC (PMIC) and security solutions.

The System LSI Business not only makes leading individual products, but is also a total solution provider that can merge the various logic technologies into one platform, in order to deliver optimized solutions to customers.

“In an age that requires machines to learn and think as people do, the importance of logic chips, which play the roles of the brain, heart, nervous system and eyes, is growing to unprecedented levels,” said Yong-In Park, President and Head of System LSI Business at Samsung Electronics. “Samsung will converge and combine its technology embedded in various products like SoC, sensor, DDI and modem, in order to lead the Fourth Industrial Revolution as a total solution provider.”

▲ Yong-In Park, President and Head of System LSI Business, is giving his keynote speech at Samsung Tech Day 2022.

A Vision of Chips With Human-Like Performance

The Fourth Industrial Revolution was a key theme in System LSI’s Tech Day sessions. The System LSI Business’ logic chips are crucial physical foundations of Hyper-Intelligence, Hyper-Connectivity and Hyper-Data, which are the key areas of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Samsung Electronics aims to enhance the performance of these chips to a level at which they can carry out human tasks just as well as people can.

With this vision in mind, the System LSI Business is focusing on improving the performance of its essential IP like NPU (Neural Processing Unit) and modem, as well as innovating CPU (Central Processing Unit) and GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) technology by collaborating with global industry leading companies.

The System LSI Business is also continuing its work on ultra-high resolution image sensors so that its chips can capture images as the human eye does, and also has plans for sensors that can play the role of all five of the human senses.

Next-Generation Logic Chips Showcased

Samsung Electronics revealed a number of advanced logic chip technology for the first time at the Tech Day booth, including 5G Exynos Modem 5300, Exynos Auto V920 and QD OLED DDI, which are essential parts of various industries such as mobile, home appliance and automotive.

Chips that were newly released or announced this year including the premium mobile processor Exynos 2200 were also on display, along with the 200MP ISOCELL HP3 — the image sensor with the industry’s smallest 0.56-micrometer (μm)-pixels. Built on the most advanced 4-nanometer (nm) EUV (extreme ultraviolet lithography) process and combined with cutting-edge mobile, GPU and NPU technology, the Exynos 2200 provides the finest experience for smartphone users. The ISOCELL HP3, with a 12 percent smaller pixel size than the predecessor’s 0.64μm, can enable an approximately 20 percent reduction in camera module surface area, allowing smartphone manufacturers to keep their premium devices slim.

Samsung showcased its ISOCELL HP3 in action by showing the attendees of Tech Day the picture quality of photographs taken with a 200MP sensor camera, as well as demonstrating the workings of System LSI’s fingerprint security IC for biometric payment cards that combines a fingerprint sensor, Secure Element (SE) and Secure Processor, adding an extra layer of authentication and security in payment cards.

Memory Business Highlights

In a year marking 30 years and 20 years of leadership in DRAM and NAND flash memory respectively, Samsung unveiled its fifth-generation 10nm-class (1b) DRAM as well as eighth- and ninth-generation Vertical NAND (V-NAND), affirming the company’s commitment to continue providing the most powerful combination of memory technologies over the next decade.

Samsung also emphasized how the company will demonstrate greater resilience through collaborative partnerships in the face of new industry challenges.

“One trillion gigabytes is the total amount of memory Samsung has made since its beginning over 40 years ago. About half of that trillion was produced in the last three years alone, indicating just how fast digital transformation is progressing,” said Jung-bae Lee, President and Head of Memory Business at Samsung Electronics. “As advances in memory bandwidth, capacity and power efficiency enable new platforms and these, in turn, stimulate more semiconductor innovations, we will increasingly push for a higher level of integration on the journey toward digital coevolution.”

▲ Jung-bae Lee, President and Head of Memory Business, is giving his keynote speech at Samsung Tech Day 2022.

DRAM Solutions to Advance Data Intelligence

Samsung’s 1b DRAM is currently under development with plans for mass production in 2023. To overcome challenges in DRAM scaling beyond the 10nm range, the company has been developing disruptive solutions in patterning, materials and architecture, with technology like High-K material well underway.

The company then highlighted upcoming DRAM solutions such as 32Gb DDR5 DRAM, 8.5Gbps LPDDR5X DRAM and 36Gbps GDDR7 DRAM that will bring new capabilities to data center, HPC, mobile, gaming and automotive market segments.

Expanding beyond conventional DRAM, Samsung also underscored the importance of tailored DRAM solutions such as HBM-PIM, AXDIMM and CXL that can fuel system-level innovation in better handling the explosive growth of data worldwide.

1,000+ V-NAND Layers by 2030

Since its inception a decade ago, Samsung’s V-NAND technology has progressed through eight generations, bringing 10 times the layer count and 15 times the bit growth. Samsung’s most recent, 512Gb eighth-generation V-NAND features a bit density improvement of 42%, attaining the industry’s highest bit density among 512Gb triple-level cell (TLC) memory products to date. The world’s highest capacity 1Tb TLC V-NAND will be available to customers by the end of the year.

The company also noted that its ninth-generation V-NAND is under development and slated for mass production in 2024. By 2030, Samsung envisions stacking over 1,000 layers to better enable data-intensive technologies of the future.

As AI and big data applications drive the need for faster and higher-capacity memory, Samsung will continue to leapfrog bit density by accelerating the transition to quad-level cell (QLC), while further enhancing power efficiency in support of more sustainable customer operations worldwide.

More Far-Reaching Solutions Amidst Greater Collaboration

Samsung introduced an extensive portfolio of storage solutions spanning data center, enterprise server, mobile, client, consumer and automotive applications. The company highlighted its high-performance, low-power computational storage optimized for AI and how it can contribute to eco-conscious computing. Samsung also presented a new DRAM-less SSD, the PM9C1a, which supports both PCIe 4.0 and 5.0.

Samsung then shared aggressive plans to lead the industry in intelligent mobility solutions. The company discussed its wide-ranging memory offerings designed for every modern automotive function, from in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), autonomous driving (AD) and advanced driver assisted systems (ADAS), clusters and gateways to telematics. Since entering the automotive memory market in 2015, Samsung has been rapidly growing its market presence with the intent of becoming the largest automotive memory provider by 2025.

Reaffirming its overriding goals of enhancing customer value and pursuing a customer-oriented development philosophy, Samsung stressed its intent to further expand its ecosystem partnerships. To stimulate more widespread open innovation, Samsung revealed a key element of its blueprint for greater customer collaboration. The company will open a Samsung Memory Research Center (SMRC) where customers and partners can test and verify Samsung memory and software solutions in various server environments. Beginning with the opening of its first SMRC in Korea in the fourth quarter of this year, Samsung plans to later launch additional hubs in the U.S. and around the world, in collaboration with ecosystem partners like Red Hat and Google Cloud.

Exynos: The Technology Intensive System Semiconductor

In the first installment of this series, Samsung Newsroom shares the importance of the graphics processing unit (GPU) and image signal processor (ISP) in the Exynos mobile processor (SoC). Before meeting with the seven IP development leaders, Samsung Newsroom first met with the SoC Development Head and Senior Vice President Mingoo Kim, who oversees system-on-chip (SoC) design in the System LSI Business.

Kim first explained the fundamental reason behind the concept of SoC, in which various features are all incorporated into a single chip. “When chips are divided, it becomes difficult to manage their power consumption completely,” Kim said. “When each feature consumes power separately, the battery efficiency also decreases. In addition, the bandwidth limit and transfer time latency will affect data transmission between chips, which can lead to reduction in performance.” Consuming minimal power is very important for smartphones because, unlike desktop computers, smartphones are not continuously supplied with power.

“SoC has high efficiency due to comprehensive power control. And as a single chip, it also takes up less space within a smartphone,” Kim explained. “When all functions are performed by a single chip, performance is significantly improved.” Modern mobile phones go beyond simply sending and receiving calls and texts and have evolved to perform a multitude of advanced functions, including taking videos, mobile gaming and accessing financial services. The SoC, which is smaller than a thumb nail, has played a big role in making this possible.

As the SoC is the epitome of all main types of information technology that exist today, Kim described it as the “flower of system semiconductors.” “SoC is not an easy field to work in, but it’s an optimistic field that any engineer would aspire to become a part of,” Kim said. “The role of SoC will be limitless in future industries, such as the metaverse, autonomous driving and 6G.”

Samsung will continue to focus on developing proprietary IP, including GPUs, NPUs, ISPs, modems, RF and more. Samsung strives to take another step forward in chip design to become a platform solution company. “With our competitiveness in SoC, we aim to see Exynos recognized as the best mobile processor brand available,” Kim said. “Through this feature series, we hope the role and importance of SoC, the characteristics and advantages of Exynos as well as its developmental direction will be shared with more people.”

Expanding the Possibilities of Mobile Gaming: GPU for More Enhanced Graphics

In general, graphics processing requires large-scale computation, and it is faster and more efficient if processed in parallel (parallel processing). However, the structure of a central processing unit (CPU) is specialized for fast, serial processing. As such, graphics processing with a CPU would cause important computations to be delayed due to this constant computational performance by CPU. One example of this can be seen when playing a game. It’s possible that your character may not be able to avoid an enemy due to the touch input being delayed while graphics are being rendered on the display.

To address these issues, GPU was developed. Before there were GPUs, CPUs took care of everything. However, GPU was conceived to increase efficiency as a separate accelerator for similar computations that are frequently used. In short, CPU is like a general-purpose calculator while GPU is a large-scale parallel calculator specializing in graphics processing. This is how GPU came to be, and it is one of the key components in graphics processing. It receives commands from CPU and displays an object’s shape, location, color and texture on the monitor.

The Xclipse 920 equipped in the Exynos 2200 is the first mobile GPU Samsung jointly developed with AMD, a U.S. based global company that specializes in semiconductor products like GPU for PC and consoles. The name ‘Xclipse’ is a combination of the ‘X’ from Exynos and the word ‘eclipse.’ The name represents Samsung’s goal to go beyond the limits of mobile gaming and carry out performance on the level of console games, ushering in a new era of gaming.

▲Vice President Sungboem Park, a mobile processor design expert who oversees GPU development

In line with this, Samsung collaborated with AMD to develop a power efficient, console-level GPU for mobile devices. AMD’s GPUs are designed specifically for PCs or consoles, meaning they had to be redesigned to fit the mobile environment. Specifically, it was redesigned to accommodate the memory bandwidth of mobile, which is relatively limited, in addition to managing heat dissipation. “Based on our rich knowledge of low-power design, acquired from developing mobile SoCs, we were able to successfully achieve power efficiency and miniaturization in the first-generation product,” said Vice President Sungboem Park, a mobile processor design expert who oversees GPU development. “We focused heavily on minimizing heat, because mobile devices do not have fans like gaming consoles, while also maintaining performance so that the frames do not lag.”

The main role of the GPU in Exynos is to display objects in a 3D virtual space on a 2D smartphone screen, a role that is especially important when playing graphically demanding games on mobile devices. In particular, the Xclipse 920 is the first mobile GPU to support hardware-accelerated ray tracing (RT). Ray tracing is a technology which produces realistic lighting effects by simulating light rays reflected from 3D objects. By being accelerated by hardware rather than software, Xclipse 920 is able to perform real-time computations faster. In addition, variable rate shading (VRS) technology adjusts the amount of GPU computation depending on changes in color, shade, movement and other variables of the objects on screen to reduce GPU overload.

▲The Xclipse 920 has its own hardware support for ray tracing (RT) technology, which produces realistic lighting effects by simulating light rays reflected from 3D objects.

As the number of game users grows and graphics become more detailed, the development direction of GPU is becoming increasingly more important. This includes increasing the performance level to that of high-performance consoles while lowering battery consumption. By improving these two crucial areas, users are able to experience high fidelity graphics on mobile devices similarly to how they are experienced on consoles. “In general, mobile tends to lag around five years or so behind consoles when it comes to graphics technology, however, we were able to incorporate the latest console technologies in the Exynos 2200 mobile processor quickly through our collaboration with AMD. The SoC is applied to the Galaxy S22,” Park said. “We plan to continue to implement other features in the RDNA series by working closely with AMD going forward.”

“As the performance of smartphones has become enhanced overall, it’s true that it’s not easy to create a performance edge that is significant enough for consumers to notice,” Park answered when asked about the future direction of mobile GPUs. “From now on, the reason for flagship smartphone users to purchase the latest smartphones will most likely be dependent on gaming performance,” he said. This means that the possibility of the further advancement of GPUs, which determines a smartphone’s gaming performance, is high.

He also predicted that mobile GPUs will become even more important in the fields of AR and VR as well. “For AR, GPUs will need to be equipped in lightweight devices, such as glasses, so a low-power design is very important,” Park said. “Performance requirements are much more demanding in the field of VR, as the entire visible virtual world needs to be rendered instantly. As such, we need to satisfy various development requirements while also generating more realistic images at a much faster rate than we currently can. So, the advancement of mobile GPU is crucial going ahead and will have limitless applications,” he emphasized.

Elevating the Level of Satisfaction in Camera Performance: ISP for More Natural and Vivid Images

An ISP corrects raw data transferred from an image sensor and creates a photo or video to a form preferred by the user. ISP also corrects the potential physical limitations of a camera module — comprised of an optical system and an image sensor — interpolates red, green and blue (R/G/B) and removes noise. In addition, it carries out post processing, such as adjusting the brightness of a video and emphasizing detailed areas. Simply put, through fine tuning and post processing, ISP generates the picture or video that is most desirable by the users.

▲ Whole process of ISP in Mobile Camera

In earlier smartphone models, ISP was equipped as a separate chip. However, due to market demand, embedded ISP soon became the norm. “At first, we cooperated with research institutes overseas to develop a high-performing ISP that can be used for digital cameras,” said Jongseong Choi, a project leader (PL) in the Multimedia Development Team who has been working in the video processing field for more than 20 years. “As a result, our first embedded ISP solution was utilized in the Galaxy S4’s main camera.” Since 2012, the Exynos mobile processor has been contributing to a substantial advancement in smartphone cameras’ video image quality through the internalization of ISP, enabling performance at the level of digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras.

▲Jongseong Choi, Project Leader of the Multimedia Development Team, has been working in the video processing field for more than 20 years.

With a high-performing ISP, consumers are able to enjoy higher video image quality as well as faster processing speeds. “It’s difficult to explain in specific numbers how great a photo is because photography is subjective, but we are conducting various research studies such as video evaluation using deep learning and ISP tuning technique to create natural and sharp photos and videos,” Choi explained. In addition, ISP also determines the speed of the burst rate in continuous shooting and is responsible for the fast-processing of high-resolution photos and videos.

The high-performing ISP equipped in the latest Exynos can process up to 200 million pixels. Up to seven image sensors are supported, and videos and images from up to four image sensors can be processed simultaneously. Also included is the ability to apply different parameters per each element, such as sky, bushes, skin and so on by incorporating semantic segmentation technology that recognizes the scenes being captured with the help of NPU. The AI feature detects and marks a person’s face and adjusts the brightness, focus and color of the video based on the face’s coordinates.

▲ Example of contents aware image processing using semantic segmentation

When asked about the future direction of ISP, Choi answered that development will be focused on maintaining low-power usage and improving video image quality. “The data transferred from the image sensor is processed in real-time by ISP, but the amount of data is increasing exponentially,” Choi said. “So, a significant amount of power is consumed in writing the data into memory and then in retrieving it later. ISP in Exynos, however, is designed to save data in memory only once, thereby minimizing power consumption,” he emphasized.

“The era of videos has arrived faster than expected and, because of this, we’re focusing on improving the video image quality,” Choi said. “In particular, we’re making efforts to increase our competitiveness by improving the video image quality, even those taken in dark, low-light environments.”

* All images shown are provided for illustrative purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the product or images captured with the product. All images are digitally edited, modified or enhanced.

An all-in-one, cross-device video creation and publishing solution, Premiere Rush features an intuitive interface that simplifies video editing into just a few easy steps. Premiere Rush provides content creators with all the tools they need to easily craft professional-grade video content.

As a result of Samsung’s partnership with Adobe, Premiere Rush for Samsung is fully optimized for Galaxy smartphones¹.

Professional Videos, On Your Terms

Premiere Rush harnesses the powerful capabilities of Premiere Pro, optimized for mobile devices. With premium features such as customizable Motion Graphics templates, AI-powered audio clean up, graphics creation and audio mixing, Premiere Rush allows users to cut and edit professional-grade videos and vlogs with ease.

Users can capture high-quality videos directly inside the app and begin editing them immediately by dragging and dropping clips on the multitrack timeline. They also have the ability to freely adjust audio, color saturation, title placement, transitions, voiceovers and more, all from the main interface. Furthermore, users can access built-in, fully customizable animated title templates right from within the app itself. And with easy resizing options, a video can be proportioned for whichever social destination the user desires. All videos and edits are automatically synced to the cloud, so users can work on their videos anywhere, anytime, on any device.

Premiere Rush for Samsung

Premiere Rush for Samsung comes with a full suite of features specially optimized for Samsung devices¹. Special features include GPU optimization for improved editing performance, meaning that exporting videos on the Galaxy S10 is now 70% faster than on previous devices², as well as HDR10+ support and Samsung DeX support to allow users to extend and optimize their workspace options.

Galaxy users who become monthly Premiere Rush subscribers will receive unlimited video exports, 100GB of cloud storage, and a 20% discount for one year³, taking the subscription price down to 7.99 USD a month.

A free starter trial version is also available, giving Galaxy users access to all Premiere Rush features, the use of desktop and mobile apps, 2GB of cloud storage, the ability to create an unlimited number of projects and export up to three projects.

Adobe Premiere Rush for Samsung is available on the Galaxy Store and will be expanded to more Galaxy devices in the near future.

¹ Available on Galaxy S9, Galaxy Note9 and Galaxy S10 series devices. Galaxy S9 and Galaxy Note9 users are encouraged to update to P OS for GPU optimization.

² With Premiere Rush for Samsung, exporting videos on the Galaxy S10 is 70% faster than on the Galaxy S9 before P OS update

³ Available until January 2020

It was launched in Beijing, China at Intel’s Worldwide Launch Event of the 8th generation Intel Core i7 processor with 6 cores, which comes with the Samsung Notebook Odyssey Z.

Design

The Samsung Notebook Odyssey Z takes an entirely new approach to gaming. Redesigned with revolutionary thermal management hardware, the in-built Z AeroFlow Cooling System consists of three key components: the Dynamic Spread Vapor Chamber, the Z AeroFlow Cooling Design and the Z Blade Blower. They’re all built to keep the Odyssey Z cool in the heat of battle, whilst remaining lightweight and portable, so you can take those powerful gaming experiences with you, wherever you need to go.

The custom designed Dynamic Spread Vapor Chamber is an intelligently made airflow, which covers both GPU and CPU from edge to edge for optimal heat management, so you can game at full performance with peace of mind. The Vapor Chamber is aided by Z AeroFlow Cooling Design, to efficiently push the cold air to the hottest parts of the device above and below simultaneously, whilst expelling the warm air out from the vents. Two built-in Z Blade Blowers add sophistication to the Odyssey Z’s thermal architecture, ensuring a sweat free gaming session.

Performance

The Samsung Notebook Odyssey Z is here to take your gaming to new levels and deliver the full performance of the built-in hardware. With the GeForce GTX 1060, based on the NVIDIA Pascal architecture and loaded with innovative new gaming technologies, high resolution visuals are always guaranteed.

Also equipped with an 8^th generation Intel Core i7 processor with 6 cores and 12 threads, the Samsung Notebook Odyssey Z delivers an exceptional platform for multi-core tasks like high resolution video editing, 3D rendering and more. The device supports the latest DDR4 memory with a bandwidth of 2,400 MHz, so your games are always operating at lighting quick speed.

Gaming Usability

Engineered for hardcore gaming performance, the Samsung Notebook Odyssey Z comes with a refined keyboard with Crater Keycaps delivering enhanced precision and comfort and new and Touchpad design, which is located to the side for a more desktop like feel. Shortcut keys also capture and record your gameplay, as well as giving you a Silent mode option, so you can comprehensively analyze your skills or focus on work with the fan noise able to reach a lowly 22 decibels.

“With the Notebook Odyssey Z, we set out to create a dynamic, user friendly laptop that would take gaming experiences to new heights, from the vibrant display to powerful processing power output,” said YoungGyoo Choi, Senior Vice President of the PC Business Team, Mobile Communication Business at Samsung Electronics. “The seamless visuals, combined with an industry leading cooling system will help give our players an upper hand in their gaming experience.”

Availability

The device will be available in select countries including Korea and China in April, with US availability in Q3 2018.

Specifications

PROCESSOR	8th Generation Intel® Core i7 Processor
MEMORY	Up to 16GB (DDR4)
STORAGE	Up to 1TB SSD (NVMe PCIe)
GRAPHICS	NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060 Graphics with GDDR5 6 GB Graphic Memory
POWER	54Wh
WEIGHT	2.4kg
COLOR	Titan Silver
DIMENSION	375.6 x 255 x 17.9 mm
PORTS	USB-C x 1, USB 3.0 X 2, USB 2.0 X 1, HDMI X1, HP/Mic, DC-in
DISPLAY	15.6” | Full HD (1920 x 1080)
CAMERA	720p
SPEAKER	1.5w X 2
KEYBOARD	Backlit KBD, Precision Touchpad
ADAPTER	180W Adapter (DC-in)

* All functionality, features, specifications and other product information provided in this document including, but not limited to, the benefits, design, pricing, components, performance, availability, and capabilities of the product are subject to change without notice or obligation.

Samsung Electronics, a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, today announced the availability of its latest application processor (AP), the Exynos 7 Series 9610. The Exynos 9610, built on Samsung’s 10-nanometer (nm) FinFET process, elevates the multimedia experience in high-end smartphones with premium-level features such as deep learning-based image processing for ultimate picture-taking experiences and stunning slow motion video recording at 480 frames per second (fps).

“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.”

For more enriched photo-taking and filming experiences, the Exynos 9610 delivers a major boost in multimedia performance. Vision and image processing is now coupled with a neural network engine for more intelligently enhanced face detection, as well as single camera out-focusing and augmented low-light images. The advanced face detection feature enables the camera to recognize faces that are either not facing forward or partially covered with objects like hair or a hat. With smart depth sensing, bokeh or out-focused portraits can be taken with a single camera. Through cleverly merging multiple frames, vision and image processing enhances the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and brightness that can improve pictures taken in low-light environments.

The Exynos 9610 also allows for 480fps slow-motion support in full HD. Even while using a conventional two-stack image sensor, the Exynos 9610 is able to encode slow-motion video, thanks to its image signal processor (ISP) with improved performance by 1.6 times and more-than-doubled mobile industry processor interface (MIPI) speed. In addition, the processor uses a premium multi-format codec (MFC) that allows encoding and decoding up to 4K 120fps.

With its powerful CPU and GPU, the Exynos 9610 provides smooth mobile computing and gaming performances that meet the needs of today’s high-end smartphones .The CPU is comprised of four Cortex-A73 cores running at 2.3 gigahertz (GHz), and four 1.6GHz Cortex-A53 cores to load apps quickly and run multiple tasks simultaneously. The GPU is a second-generation Bifrost-based ARM Mali-G72 that can bring more realistic and immersive graphics on mobile devices.

Always-on sensing applications that require instant feedback, such as gesture recognition or context awareness, are enabled by an embedded Cortex-M4F-based low-power sensor hub, which efficiently manages the sensors in real-time without waking the main processor.

For always connected and seamless mobile broadband connection, the embedded all-network LTE modem supports Cat.12 3CA (carrier aggregation) at 600 megabits per second (Mbps) for downlink and Cat.13 2CA at 150Mbps for uplink. The processor is also packed with wireless communication technologies such as high-throughput 802.11ac 2×2 MIMO Wi-Fi, faster and longer range Bluetooth 5.0, and FM for radio. In addition, for global location positioning coverage, it embeds a 4-mode Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver that includes GPS (Global Positioning System), GLONASS, BeiDou and Galileo.

The Exynos 7 Series 9610 is expected to be mass produced in the second half of this year.

For more information about Samsung’s Exynos products, please visit http://www.samsung.com/exynos.