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Samsung and Qualcomm at WAR? New Exynos 7420 Aims To Take Down Snapdragon 810
Samsung may have its sights set firmly on Qualcomm’s territory, as new reports indicate it’s making a bold bid for the processor space
We’ve been hearing a lot of reports recently about Samsung dropping Qualcomm’s processors for its next flagship, the Galaxy S6, but according to new reports out of Korea there may be more to this scenario than meets the eye. It’s alleged, in fact, that not only is Samsung distancing itself from Qualcomm, it may be engaging in direct competition with the chip maker.
Previously the Galaxy S6 handset was thought to be touting the latest Snapdragon 810 octa-core chip, at least in regions where it would not sport Samsung’s own Exynos silicon. This has been Samsung’s modus operandi for some time and has seen North America, Europe, and many other regions using Galaxy S flagship devices with Qualcomm innards, while the Asian market generally gets Samsung made Exynos kit. That’s remained true for flagships, although in recent months more of Samsung’s catalogue has introduced Exynos hardware to markets outside Asia – just not the big guns.
Now however, there’s a lot of talk about Samsung not using Qualcomm chips inside the Galaxy S6.
The rumour mill has been abuzz with ideas and suggestions for Samsung’s change of heart towards Qualcomm. On the one end of the scale you have the fairly ambiguous claim that Samsung encountered some problems during internal testing – this line of thought seems to be associated with another rumour – that Samsung will initially ship mostly Exynos edition devices at first (presumably to all regions), but if it can resolve issues with the Snapdragon chip will gradually ramp up production of Qualcomm-based handsets (and that likely means non-Asian markets getting Qualcomm models from that point onwards). That means that in this scenario, Samsung is not abandoning Qualcomm per se, it’s merely putting its use of the Snapdragon 810 on the back burner for a bit.
Such rumours have taken a slightly more sensational turn when it was alleged the Snapdragon 810 has problems with overheating issues. Qualcomm has strenuously denied these claims, but rumours have since escalated suggesting that Samsung could drop Qualcomm’s chip altogether.
Now the latest report from Korean ETNews claims that Samsung is actively positioning itself as a direct competitor to Qualcomm with its own Exynos chip. Allegedly, Samsung is going to “war”.
“SEC is planning to drastically increase the use of its ‘Exynos 7420’ in its strategic model Galaxy S6 this year. Qualcomm’s ‘Snap Dragon 810’ was applied to the G Flex 2, recently released by LG Electronics, and Xiaomi’s Mi Note Pro. The two APs will also compete fiercely to find their way into other manufacturers’ premium smartphones scheduled to be unveiled in February or March.”
The line goes that Samsung’s Exynos 7 tech, including the Exynos 7420 believed to be replacing the Snapdragon 810 inside the Galaxy S6, uses a 14 nanometre (nm) architecture as opposed to Qualcomm’s 20nm hardware. Samsung is betting on its chips performing better, and indeed, leaks and reports would appear to suggest, at least ostensibly, that this is indeed the case. We’ve now seen benchmarks of the Exynos chip inside what would seem to be the Galaxy S6, compared to leaked benchmarks of the HTC One M9 (Snapdragon 810 based) and both LG’s G Flex 2 and the Xiomi Mi Note, which have launched recently, carry the 810 SoC. The Exynos hardware performed better in leaked Geekbench tests than the Qualcomm chip on HTC’s One M9. Exynos details would also appear to come out more favourably compared to information on the two aforementoned released devices from LG and Xiomi, as ETNews reports:
“Looking at the disclosed specifications, e.g. the CPU speed, process and power consumption, Samsung’s Exynos 7420 has the upper hand. The operating speed of Exynos is 2.1GHz, faster than that of Qualcomm’s Snap Dragon 810 (1.6GHx). As the 14nm technology is applied, it consumes less power than the Qualcomm chip based on the 20nm technology.”
An unnamed industry insider reportedly said that the benchmarks and specs alone would not necessarily indicate real-life performance, but added that the “superiority in specifications will definitely give a marketing opportunity to Samsung Electronics’ AP”
The only real kicker for Samsung is that unlike Qualcomm’s Snapdragon it has thus far failed to bring a chip to market with built-in LTE modems; Qualcomm’s integrated modems also cover a wide range of mobile data bands.
We can pose a number of theories as to why Samsung is making this strategic move. Firstly, Samsung may now consider that it is in a position to take a hefty chunk of the mobile processor industry – to date it has largely been a two-horse race between Nvidia and Qualcomm, with occasional outrunners from Intel, MediaTek and others but in recent months Qualcomm has utterly dominated the sector to the point of stagnation. MediaTek also now appears to be on the rise, and Samsung has the widely published prestige of being the manufacturer of Apple’s A-series chips for iPhones and iPads – if there was ever a time to make a move now would probably be it.
Another factor could be differentiation, which to an extent goes hand-in-hand with the first point – Qualcomm is now so dominant in the space that consumers seem to be fatigued by the sheer ubiquity of Snapdragon silicon and the sameness it creates from device to device. Many devices, including Samsung’s own Galaxy S5 flagship, have come under fire for not innovating enough over successive generations. Crucially then, if Samsung can show consumers that its own chips give it an edge over rival flagships from LG, Sony, HTC and the rest (all using Qualcomm), then it may have a key advantage.
Paul Briden
17:31, 27 Jan 2015