Samsung has revealed an 8-core chipset and new screen technology, which are likely to be featured in their upcoming Galaxy S4 flagship.

The Chipset

Before CES 2013 closed, Samsung unveiled their new Exynos 5 Octa chipset.

ARM’s bigLITTLE technology has been used to unite 8 processor cores; however, not all 8 cores can be used simultaneously. Instead, the chipset works by pairing two quad core processors together, alternating between four powerful Cortex-A15 cores and four economical Cortex-A7 cores.

ARM’s bigLITTLE provides the spirited processing power we all want from our smartphone while balancing battery life. Compared to the Exynos 5 Dual, which is the processor used in Samsung Nexus 10 tablet and Chromebook, the Eynos 5 Octa promises 70% lower power consumption.

According to the technophiles at GSMArena, the new chipset “could posses as much as twice the 3D rendering prowess of the Exynos 4 Quad” which is the processor used in the current Galaxy S3, and its phablet brother, the Galaxy Note II.

Samsung has not officially confirmed if the Exynos 5 Octa will be the chipset used in the Galaxy S4; however, following Samsung’s single-core, dual-core and quad-core galaxies, the Galaxy S4 would naturally progress to include an 8 core processor. Furthermore, it’s a better suited solution than the battery-hungry Exynos 5 Dual, (the Nexus 10 tablet features a battery 4 times larger than that used in the Galaxy S3 to support the Exynos 5 dual.)

The screen

We’ve heard rumours Samsung is working on a 5 inch Full HD screen to be used in their smartphones, but an eagle-eyed AnandTech.com writer spotted this roadmap at Samsung’s CES booth.

Click to enlarge

The Full HD resolution screen spans 4.99 inches, has a 440 pixel-per-inch resolution and uses an AMOLED panel, which Samsung alleges saves power by 25%. Better yet, if you find your smartphone is low on juice, a low power mode will use 47% less power.

Although Samsung’s Galaxies tend to sit at the cutting edge of the smartphone market, the company will be uncharacteristically under pressure from Sony, whose Xperia Z features a 5 inch Full HD screen.