Samsung is reportedly preparing a 'Chromebook' variant of the Exynos 2800 to rival Apple's M7

Samsung is readying two distinct versions of its upcoming Exynos 2800 SoC in a bold bid to challenge Apple across both mobile and desktop tiers, claims leaker Schrödinger. Per the leak, Samsung is developing a mobile-first variant aimed at the A21 Pro, alongside a high-performance laptop chip designed to compete directly with Apple's M7 family.

However, these early claims should be viewed with skepticism. While Schrödinger says the Exynos 2800 will use Samsung's 1.4nm process, mass production for that node has reportedly been delayed until 2029. Apple's A21, which may power the iPhone 19 family, is expected to be released by late 2027, potentially ditching TSMC for the base variant. The same schedule applies to the MacBook M7.

In any case, the Exynos 2800, referred to as 'Next-gen Exynos' in one of the leaker's blogs, is reported to have a 10-core configuration split across three core types. The processor is also listed with a massive 96MB SLC (System Level Cache). For reference, the current-gen Exynos 2600 has 16MB of SLC.

• 2x Prime cores at 4.5 GHz+
• 4x Medium cores at 3.8 GHz
• 4x Efficiency cores at sub-2 GHz

SRAM scales differently with each process node. Still, 96MB is a large amount for a mobile chip, so this likely refers to the 'Chromebook' variant. The leaker further claims the Exynos 2800 offers a 15% area reduction and a 25% power-efficiency gain at the same frequencies, compared to Exynos chips made using the SF2 node (likely the 2nd-generation SFP2).

Emerging leaks from Weibo suggest the Exynos 2800 could mark Samsung's return to in-house CPU cores. This would be the first time since the Mongoose era that Samsung has moved away from ARM's off-the-shelf Cortex designs. The Exynos 2800 will also allegedly use a proprietary GPU, ending Samsung's reliance on AMD's RDNA. While in-house IP promises tighter optimization, it also carries some risks since Samsung hasn't fielded a custom CPU core since the 2019 Exynos 990.

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Another key introduction with the Exynos 2800 is expected to be path tracing. Unlike traditional hybrid ray tracing, which uses shortcuts to render lighting, path tracing simulates the physics of light by bouncing millions of rays throughout a scene. Since even dedicated flagships like the RTX 5090 struggle with path tracing, it remains to be seen whether it will become a transformative feature in mobile gaming or remain a marketing tech demo.

While many details are still under wraps, Samsung's goals for the Exynos 2800 are quite ambitious. This chip is expected to debut with the Samsung Galaxy S28 family, which is slated for a 2028 launch. A pivot to refined 2nm-class technology (SF2P/SF2P+) remains a high-probability safety net if time-to-market requirements are not met.

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The most intriguing aspect is the shift back toward proprietary IP and the rumored "Chromebook" variant of the Exynos 2800. If successfully deployed alongside Windows on ARM (assuming it's not exclusive to literal Chromebooks), Samsung could emerge as another formidable contender in the PC space, directly challenging Intel, AMD, Apple, Qualcomm, and even NVIDIA.