Even more than five years after its debut, the Galaxy S20 Ultra remains one of Samsung's most intriguing phones of the past 10 years. At the very least, it's a key piece of mobile and Exynos history. Five years later, the S20 Ultra still stands out for one rare hardware trait no Galaxy phone has repeated.Not only was it the first-ever Galaxy S Ultra model and the first in the series equipped with a 100x “Space Zoom” camera setup, but if you own a Galaxy S20 Ultra, you own Samsung's last Galaxy S phone equipped with a custom CPU core developed by the Korean tech giant.Indeed, the global Galaxy S20 Ultra variant may have had a relatively poor reputation due to the Exynos 990 chip. Nevertheless, the one thing that caused frustration for S fans five years ago is a unique characteristic today.Samsung had an M5 before AppleYou see, Samsung's Exynos division used to create custom CPU cores under the Mongoose brand. And the Galaxy S20 Ultra is the last in the series to feature a custom Mongoose core, the Mongoose M5.A few months after the S20 Ultra's debut, Samsung reused the Mongoose M5 CPU core and the Exynos 990 chip to create the Note 20 Ultra — the last Note smartphone ever.Ironically, Samsung's Mongoose M5 core not only marked the beginning of the Galaxy S Ultra series but also the end of the Note family of phones. It really left its mark.In any case, the Exynos 990 chip was one of Samsung's most problematic in its chip-making history. Newer Exynos SoCs aren't nearly as divisive as the 990 was, but then again, newer Exynos SoCs no longer use custom CPU cores developed in-house by Samsung. Need a phone upgrade? Browse the latest Galaxy S25 Ultra offers Samsung Shop Samsung's chip-making division may one day try to develop its own custom CPU or SoC, but the Mongoose M5 was the last attempt, and that's one of the several reasons why the Galaxy S20 Ultra will always be unique compared to its successors.Support for the Galaxy S20 Ultra ended earlier this year. The phone no longer receives regular security patches. But the S20 Ultra defined a new generation of devices, and whether you love it or hate it, the Mongoose M5 CPU core is a part of that history.The post Galaxy S20 Ultra was wild and carried Samsung’s last Mongoose CPU core appeared first on SamMobile.