The marvel of engineering that Samsung proclaimed as its octa-core chip will not be making it to Galaxy S4 handsets in the UK. Recombu has received a statement from Samsung reiterating….
The Samsung Galaxy S4 is equipped with a 1.9GHz Quad-core AP or a 1.6GHz Octa-core AP. The selection of AP varies by markets. In the UK the Galaxy S4 will be available as a 4G device with a 1.9GHz Quad Core Processor.
Whilst this is a blow, it still means that the newest star in the Galaxy line-up will be driven by a Qualcomm 600 processor for us. Considering this will still be a step up from the S4 and S4 Pro chipsets which power most of the latest tablets including the Nexus 4, HTC OneX+ and Sony Experia Z, the phone won’t be a slouch by any means of the imagination.
However as you should already know, recent benchmarks for the S600 powered phone still show it almost twice as fast as the iPhone 5. I know this is not an apples to apples comparison as the iPhone is now almost 5 months old, but it does give you an indication of the speed this puppy can chew through benchmarking tests.
What the exynos will bring to the bragging rights benchmarking party is anyone’s guess, but we’ll know pretty soon.
I don’t think any potential SGS4 owner will be too disappointed.
Source: recombu
Who will get an S4 with the Octa-core processor then? Seems pretty pointless to make two devices named the same, yet one with a completely different architecture. Knowing what I do about the inner workings of Android, though, I’d be surprised if 8 cores would make a great deal of difference right at the moment, unless apps are specifically optimised for it. I should imagine the huge clockspeed of the current S4 would make more difference to most types of app than the number of cores. Especially in terms of responsiveness.
This is actually the same with PC operating systems. Even Mac OS X native applications have to be very specifically tuned to make the most of more cores, and that is probably the most advanced multi-core consumer OS. Developers are now more used to dealing with multiple cores, but even still, most applications do not use them to their full potential.
The Exynos is a 3G SOC, the Snapdragon is a 4G SOC. I’m surprised the (currently) non 4G networks aren’t taking the Exynos powered phone, or am I? By taking the Snapdragon only, it means the customers who buy it won’t have to upgrade mid-contract to take advantage of the 4G when it gets turned on.
Even though the Exynos is an Octa-Core SOC, only one set of cores will be operational at any time. When the device is not requiring much power the low power A7 quad (1.2Ghz)will be working, as the power ramps up the A15 quad (1.6Ghz) will take over and the A7 will power down.
The Snapdragon runs its Krait 300 at 1.9Ghz.
It will be interesting to see how the two chips fare against each other though. Will the speed advantage of the Krait convert to a performance advantage over the Exynos A15?
You would like to think that the Exynos would be the more battery friendly chip having the A7 part running some of the time, and the A15 only running at 1.6Ghz against the 1.9Ghz of the Krait.
Maybe they are making both so they can sell more?
If one has one chip and the other has a different chip then less likely to put excessive constraints on the supply chain, build more, sell more make more money?
Didn’t Omio break this story – https://twitter.com/Omiodotcom/status/314353954945372160
And I’m off to pre-order an HTC One now… 😉