Samsung’s new Exynos 1610 chip powers the Galaxy A18 4G and is not simply a rebranded Exynos 1330 without 5G — it brings a stronger GPU, an upgraded image processor and native VP9 decoding support.
Exynos 1610 architecture and connectivity
The Exynos 1610 (S5E8365) is fabricated on Samsung Foundry’s 5nm (5LPE) node, like the Exynos 1330. Its CPU configuration comprises two Cortex‑A78 cores clocked at 2.4 GHz and six Cortex‑A55 cores at 2.0 GHz. Unlike the Exynos 1280 and 1330, the Exynos 1610 uses a 4G modem rather than a 5G modem.
The chip pairs with either LPDDR4X RAM and UFS 2.2 or eMMC 5.1 storage; in the Galaxy A18 the processor is implemented with eMMC 5.1.
GPU, ISP and multimedia upgrades
The Exynos 1610 uses a Mali‑G68 MP4 GPU (four cores), two cores more than the Mali‑G68 MP2 in the Exynos 1330, yielding noticeably better gaming and graphics performance. Its image signal processor has been upgraded to support recording up to 4K at 60 fps, and the Multimedia Format Codec now supports native VP9 decoding. On the Galaxy A18, however, video recording is limited to Full HD (1080p) at 30 fps.
Benchmarks published in a recent review show Geekbench 6 scores of 953 (single‑core) and 2,144 (multi‑core), closely matching the Exynos 1330. The device reached 483,061 points in AnTuTu and 1,434 points in the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme graphics test. In that graphics benchmark the Exynos 1610’s GPU outperformed the Exynos 1580’s GPU, and the review reported no throttling during testing.
Those performance and thermal characteristics make the Exynos 1610 a strong contender for gaming within its price tier, while its lack of a 5G modem represents a clear connectivity downgrade compared with Exynos 1280 and 1330–equipped chips.
