Inquisitive Universe: Good evening to you. Let's discuss CPU cores tonight. This is a topic that we all know very well to a very large extent. But with smartphone tech, you can never know it all. So let's take a trip through the CPUs that can be found on smartphones. Like most people out there, I once (very erroneously) believed that the CPU referred to the entire computing entity on a smartphone. This was somewhat accurate but it fell way short of the truth. The computing infrastructure on a smartphone is the SoC or system on a chip. It is composed of several parts which includes: 1. CPU cores 2. GPU 3. NPU 4. ISP 5. Modem 6. DSP etc. What we are interested in right now is the CPU cores. So let's shoot in. The CPUs or more accurately, the CPU cores, on a mobile SoC are generalized computing units that handle the majority of the computing load on a phone. The CPU cores are the major computing hubs of any SoC. CPU cores are important because they are multi-purpose CPUs that do the major work on any phone. The CPU cores can do everything. The Operating System runs on the CPU cores. The CPU cores have to process apps, games, system functions, background tasks, loading pictures and videos before sharing the graphics load etc. There have been several types of CPU cores over the years. These different CPU cores have different levels of performance. This information has been treated as some type of esoteric knowledge that is being hidden from the general public. Sadly even when you make this knowledge known to the general public, they're usually not interested. With just a few exceptions, nearly every SoC is made by ARM or customized from an ARM designed. For those who don't know, ARM holdings is the company that makes CPU core designs. They also make GPUs as well. They mostly do not produce any of these. At least not commercially. They mostly do the designs virtually or on a sheet and licence them out to those who need them. These licensing agreements are worth millions and ARM can withdraw their license at any time if an OEM doesn't abide by the terms of the license. Mobile SoC OEMs go to ARM to obtain CPU core and sometimes GPU licenses to make their processors. For example, inorder to build the Xiaomi XRING O1, Xiaomi needed a core license for the Cortex X925, Cortex A725 and the Cortex A520. They also need a license for the 16-core ARM Mali G925 Immortalis GPU. Whilst Qualcomm on the other hand may not need ARM's CPUs anymore, the Oryon CPUs are based on an ARM template so they didn't exactly reinvent the wheel. I'll categorize these SoCs based on performance so we further understand them. Entry level * Cortex A55 * Cortex A53 These CPU cores usually offer the weakest performance. They're found on the cheapest phones and are only meant for very casual use. They can't even run the full version of Android efficiently. This is why they're mostly relegated to running Android Go. So if you look at a processor like the Helio G50 Ultimate or the Unisoc T7100, this is mostly what you'll find. Budget * Cortex A73 * Cortex A75 Budget CPU cores offer much better performance than the entry level ones however, they will still struggle when faced with the full power of Android. They usually offer around 220-300k performance on AnTuTu depending on the CPU configuration and clock speed. Once upon a time, this was a solid performance but today, it's not so much. You can find the A73 on the Snapdragon 6s 4G Gen 2, 680 and 685. You can find the A75 on the Unisoc T7200, T7250, T7255; and the Helio G80, G81, G85, G88 etc. Lower mid-range * Cortex A76 * Cortex A78 This is where you start to see some decent computing power, somewhere between 380-500k on AnTuTu. This is more than enough for most average users today. However, with Android system requirements gradually increasing over time, this performance may soon begin to fall short. In fact, many reviewers are already in favour of demoting SoCs Cortex A76 and A78 to the budget segment. These include SoCs like the Helio G99, G100, G200, Unisoc T8300, Snapdragon 4s Gen 2 etc. Upper Midrange * Cortex A710 * Cortex A715 * Cortex A720 These are the type of CPU cores that you'll find on most modern upper mid-rangers. Premium Midrange * Cortex X1 * Cortex A725 * Cortex X2 Apart from the Cortex A725, which can also be found on flagship/flagship killer SoCs, the Cortex X1 and X2 are all older flagships that dropped into the premium mid-range segment. They're still very capable. Flagship killer/Budget Flagship * Cortex X3 * Cortex X4 These are very powerful ex flagship CPU cores that are still very much in demand. They're usually paired with A720 and A520 CPUs in a DynamIQ setup. They can handle literally anything thrown at them. Flagship/Super Flagship * Cortex X925 * Oryon CPU These are currently the best CPU cores that are commercially available to mankind. There are new ones in the works to be released by September/October this year (2025) but for now, these are the absolute best on offer. So let's do something, yeah. Let's do a census of the CPU cores on our smartphones. I'll go first: Poco F5 Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 1x Cortex X2 3x Cortex A710 4x Cortex A510 I look forward to seeing yours. Cheers and good evening.