Mysterious Samsung Exynos chip with nine CPU cores spotted

A mysterious Samsung device with an unreleased Exynos processor recently surfaced in a Geekbench machine learning (ML) benchmark. The device in question bears the model number SM-S9190, suggesting that it’s a flagship smartphone from the Galaxy S line. But the chip powering it has the model ID S5E9935, which has been previously associated with the Exynos 2300 that never saw the light of day. It features an unusual setup with nine CPU cores.

The Exynos 2300 chip was in the works with a nine-core CPU setup

There have been reports last year that Samsung is readying a new flagship Exynos chip with nine CPU cores. The company planned to launch it as the Exynos 2300, but it ended up canceling the chip altogether. However, the same model ID associated with this unreleased chip has now surfaced on Geekbench along with a nine-core CPU setup. It has one prime core operating at 2.60GHz, four mid-cores at 2.59GHz, and four efficiency cores at 1.82GHz.

The CPU frequency is a lot lower than what you’d expect on a flagship processor, or what we’ve heard in rumors (peak frequency of 3.09GHz and base frequency of 2.1GHz). But that isn’t unusual in early benchmark runs. After all, it’s an ML test (the device scored 456, which is quite low too). Meanwhile, we can see that Samsung has paired the CPU with an Xclipse 930 GPU. This GPU doesn’t exist but the Exynos 2200 has the Xclipse 920 GPU.

The Geekbench listing doesn’t tell us anything else, at least not notable. We can see the device boasts 8GB of RAM and runs Android 13. But the identity of the device isn’t revealed. There haven’t been any rumors about an SM-S919*. The Galaxy S23 Ultra bears the model number SM-S918*.

Could this be the Galaxy S23 FE?

Shortly after this Geekbench entry went live, the blogosphere went abuzz with rumors that the mysterious device in question could be the Galaxy S23 FE. Samsung is gearing up to launch a new FE model later this year, equipping it with an Exynos chip globally. But this may not be the phone we are expecting. Here’s why.

For one, the Galaxy S23 FE is rumored to bear the model number SM-S711*. Of course, Samsung could change the model number ahead of launch, or even use a fake one to hide the identity during early test runs. But then, the device we see in this Geekbench listing is running firmware version S919OXXU0AVI1. That’s a build from September 2022. For the uninitiated, the second to last character indicates the month (I=September), while the third to last character indicates the year (V=2022).

It’s unusual for a company to test a new device running a several months old software build. Samsung’s Android 13 update wasn’t official back then. So that’s another red flag. On top of this, rumors have suggested that the Galaxy S23 FE will get Samsung’s Exynos 2200 chip globally. Joining all the dots together, it appears highly unlikely that we are looking at Samsung’s new FE phone here. However, nothing is set in stone as yet, so things may still take a more favorable turn in the coming months.

But as things stand, this mystery of the unreleased Samsung phone seen on Geekbench remains unsolved. Perhaps this might be the right time to remember that it isn’t impossible to spoof Geekbench entries. Any device can be passed through the site as something different. Most of these entries are usually legitimate, but there have been cases of fake Geekbench runs in the past. So bear that in mind and wait for more details about the Galaxy S23 FE and the next-gen flagship Samsung Exynos processor.