MWC 2014: Samsung Shows Pair of New Processors in Exynos 5 Line

This year's round of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) event has given us plenty to consider already, what with the rapid growth of machine to machine (M2M) communications and a host of other mobile developments slipping in. But there's something a little more mundane—yet still rather exciting—to consider as Samsung (News - Alert) shows its hand at the event, and said hand is packing a pair of new processors that may put Samsung in line for a full house in the market.

The new processors in question both represent part of the Exynos 5 line, and include the new Octa 5422 and the Hexa 5260, both of which can reportedly be seen currently operating in two new Samsung smartphones. The names are actually fairly evident of the power that each brings to the table, with the Octa 5422 boasting an octa-core processor, and the Hexa 5260 a hexa-core version.

The Octa 5422, meanwhile, is configured for four 1.5 GHz Cortex-A7 cores along with four Cortex-A15 cores at 2.1 GHz, and can further put to use Heterogenous Multi-Processing to help the cores put the fullest speed to use without being too hard on the power supply. Reports suggest that this makes the Octa 5422 one of the fastest out there, at least on a theoretical level, and can even support 4K UHD videos as well as both WQHD and WQXGA screen resolutions.

The Hexa 5260, meanwhile, will prove no slouch if not necessarily as fast as its cohort. Some have suggested that it may be the only hexa-core chip in the mobile market, depending on how the term is applied, and as such makes it not only unusual but also noteworthy. It boasts, similar to its octa-core counterpart, four 1.3 GHz Cortex-A7 cores, but an additional two 1.7 GHz Cortex-A15 cores, along with the Heterogeneous Multi-Processing system to keep the power drain down. That qualifies it to take on video at 1080p and 60 frames per second, but also the WQXGA resolution display.

Samsung's revelation of the Galaxy S5 showed that the device would come in two versions, and one with an octa-core processor, now pretty much certain to be the Octa 5422. Meanwhile, the Hexa 5260 seems destined for the Galaxy Note 3 Neo, giving that device a good slug of processing power as well.

Samsung is a popular brand by most any measure—particularly with the guys, as a recent Clean Master survey noted—so seeing Samsung ramp up the power on its new breed of releases is probably a smart idea. Additionally, Samsung needs to keep up the processing power in order to fend off its primary competitor, Apple (News - Alert)'s, advances into the field. The better Samsung is able to keep up with the changing landscape, particularly as things like mobile streaming video and gaming become popular, the better chance Samsung has in turn of not only being able to hold onto its current market share, but also being able to gain back some market share lost among other competitors.

Samsung's new processors may not be a silver-bullet win in the mobile space, but it's a safe bet that there will be plenty of eyes looking in Samsung's direction once the new processors start emerging into the market fairly soon. With plenty of power behind same, there's no reason not to take a closer look.