Samsung’s Tizen smartphones to be powered by Exynos 4 SoC

The first Tizen device is not going to be out for a couple of months, and it’s going to be a showcase of the hardware prowess of Samsung. When it launches in August or September, a timeline revealed by a high-level Samsung exec in March, the phone is expected to have a 720p display and a Cortex-A9-based CPU. Until now, we had no inkling as to which CPU that would be. But a couple of lines in the Tizen repository for parts of the OS that Samsung has committed to has revealed support for two chipsets – the Exynos 4212 and Exynos 4412.

The first is a modified version of what went into the Samsung Galaxy S 2, which means it will be a dual-core CPU and could likely be used for mid-range Melius handset. Redwood, the high-end Tizen smartphone that leaked earlier, will most likely get the Exynos 4412, which was used in the Samsung Galaxy S3. Both SoCs have a Mali-400 GPU, which has been known to deliver good graphics performance.

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Old SoCs for the new smartphones

We knew that Samsung wouldn’t be going the whole hog when it came to specs with the first Tizen devices. So it was no surprise that it's not Exynos 5 Octa that's mentioned as the SoC. Nevertheless, the reference to Exynos 4412 comes as good news, as it’s still quite a good SoC as seen in our review of the Galaxy S3. 

The only disappointment is seeing the Exynos 4212, which despite being a revamped version of the dual-core Cortex-A9 CPUs, sounds outdated. We would have liked to see Samsung push the envelope and include a Cortex-A15 chip for one of the phones. As things stand though, that’s not the case.