We’ve heard recently that the Galaxy S4 was supposedly using a Snapdragon processor. We’ve even seen benchmarks using one of Qualcomm’s new processors. But now a new report coming out of Korea is stating that Samsung is having issues with the Exynos 5 Octa processor. These must be some serious issues to have the South Korean manufacturer looking to Qualcomm for SoC’s. Especially since they are one of their competitors. It’s kind of interesting that Samsung would take the Exynos chip out completely since they do have other Exynos chips available. Like the one in the Nexus 10 and Samsung Chromebook.
This is where the second report comes in. Piper Jaffray analyst Gus Richard was talking about the Samsung-Qualcomm business relationship for the Galaxy S4 launch. Richard stated that basically the same things: That the Exynos 5 Octa has issues that determined Samsung to postpone the Galaxy S4 launch and look at Qualcomm for chips for their Flagship device. This would be a decision that would greatly benefit Qualcomm, since the Galaxy S4 is expected to sell 100 million units:
“We believe Samsung’s Galaxy S4 has slipped and the Galaxy S3 has been in production a quarter longer than expected,” writes Richard. “We believe the S4 is being delayed primarily due to power issues with the company’s eight-core Exynos Octa […] we believe the company is likely to shift more to external sources. We believe QCOM will pick up more of Samsung’s S4 business.”
Now analysts don’t always get everything right, but right now we’ll have to just take this with a grain of salt and wait and see. There is supposedly a big announcement coming on March 14th. But so far we have no confirmation of an event, or who it’s for. But I wouldn’t mind seeing the Snapdragon 800 processor in the Galaxy S4, especially with Quick Charge 2.0 that is said to charge your phone 75% faster. Who wouldn’t want that?
Would you buy the Galaxy S4 if it didn’t have an Exynos processor? I probably would, since my Galaxy S3 is running the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4, thanks to LTE. Let us know in the comments below if you rather have the Exynos 5 Octa or the Snapdragon 800.
Source: Barrons