Samsung Galaxy S8 release date, specs: leak suggests rumored phone will use Exynos 8895 with a Mali-G71 GPU

The Samsung Galaxy S7 and the S7 Edge are shown in this photo.Reuters/Albert Gea

A new leak suggests that the rumored upcoming flagship phone from Samsung, the Galaxy S8, will be the powered by an Exynos 8895. This will then be paired with a Mali-G71 GPU that will bring mobile gaming to the next level.

Sam Mobile reported that the upcoming high-end system-on-chip (SoC) could power the next flagship phone for the company, which is an upgrade from the Exynos 8890 that was used with their Galaxy S7. The scenario is typical. The next flagship phone will have a more powerful processor than its predecessor. But that is not what the commotion is all about, it's the about the rumored GPU that will come along with the device, the Mali-G71. It is said that the Mali-G71 is 1.8 times more powerful than the Mali-T880 MP 12 (also used with the Galaxy S7).

Accordingly, this was brought about in a very unusual way. A senior Samsung official was arrested in Seoul and accused of trying to smuggle out confidential information of the latest 14 nm and 10 nm-based processors. One of these chips is said to be powering the Galaxy S8.

The SoC and GPU combo will then make the rumored processor more powerful than Qualcomm's alleged Snapdragon 830, according to a GFXBench result. This also means that it could offer 4K resolution which could benefit the VR aficionados, as well as premium gaming experience into the mobile arena, Trusted Reviews added.

The Mali-G71 is compatible with Vulkan, OpenGL ES 3.2, Android RenderScript APIs, and GPU compute. It is based on the new Bifrost architecture that can offer up to 40 percent performance increase and up to 20 percent more energy efficiency compared to its predecessor, ARM said on its product page.

"The Mali family enables stunning visuals for UHD content and the superior power and scalability of the Mali-G71 makes it the perfect GPU for next generation, high-end use cases like premium gaming and mobile VR," the statement added.

However, it is too early to tell if Samsung will use a 16 nm, 14 nm, or 10 nm fabrication node for the processor that would power the Galaxy S8.