14 DAY TRIAL // More and more device manufacturers are trying to move away from traditional silicon providers like Qualcomm and Intel. Samsung is doing it and Huawei is doing it, too. We also got word recently that Xiaomi might be looking to enter silicon production as well.
But once upon a time, LG also used to make its own processors. Last year in October, LG announced a South Korea-exclusive smartphone, which was the first to have LG’s own NUCLUN octa-core processor pumping life into it. The device proved to be a flop because the NUCLUN processor was apparently one generation behind Chinese entry-level processors from the likes of MediaTek and Huawei.
Still, it seems that LG has not abandoned its NUCLUN ambitions. Why do we say that? Because the NUCLUN 2 chipset just popped up in Geekbench showing what it can do. A screenshot revealing the benchmark results of the NUCLUN 2 were shared on Weibo (via Wccftech), revealing that the silicon will be even meaner than Samsung’s powerful Exynos 7420, which is currently powering the Galaxy S6.
The Exynos 7420 got overshadowed by the NUCLUN 2
The Exynos 7420 scores 1486 points in the single-core test, while the LG-made chip captured 1796. In the multi-score tests, the Exynos 7420 grabbed 4970, while the NUCLUN 2 came out on top with 5392 points.
So, as you can see, on paper the NUCLUN 2 does seem to be quite promising. The processor is an octa-core affair with four Cortex-A72 cores clocked at 2.1GHz plus four Cortex-A53 cores running at 1.5GHz.
We’re also told that the NUCLUN 2 is made using TSMC’s 16nm FinFET processor and features an Intel cellular model on the inside. Mass production for the chipset is expected to kick start in the second half of 2016. So maybe LG’s upcoming G5 flagship might take advantage of this chipset. If not, LG could very well release different variants of the phone, just like Samsung used to do with its flagships back in the day.
