One of the big questions facing the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S IV on March 14th is what processor and GPU combo will be included.
Early indications pointed to the recently-announced Exynos 5 Octa chip, which houses four Cortex-A15 cores and four low-power Cortex-A7 cores on a single die. But it was never realistic to assume that chip would find a place in Samsung’s flagship Android device due to power consumption concerns; the Cortex-A15 design is by nature extremely power-hungry.
It looks like Samsung will opt instead for the quad-core Snapdragon 600 SoC, which offers four 28nm cores at between 1.7Ghz and 1.9Ghz and an Adreno 320 GPU, the same one found in the LG Optimus G and others. While this may at first appear disappointing, it must be noted that Samsung utilized the same Mali-400 GPU in both its international Galaxy S II and Galaxy S III models, the latter clocked significantly higher, to little ill effect. And the Snapdragon 600 SoC is significantly faster than the dual-core S4 Plus offered in the North American Galaxy S III. It’s also likely the included Adreno 320 GPU would be clocked faster than in previous devices.
If the rumour does turn out to be true, this would be the second year in a row Samsung’s flagship phone is powered by almost identical hardware to HTC’s top device; both the GS3 and One X had 720p displays, a 1.5Ghz dual-core Snapdragon S4 SoC,16GB internal storage and 8MP cameras. The only major differences (other than software) were more RAM and a larger battery in the GS3.
It’s also rumoured that the international Galaxy S IV will indeed sport an Exynos 5 Octa chip, as native LTE support is not quite necessary across the Atlantic due to limited rollout.
We’ll know all in just over two weeks — March 14th is the big New York reveal.
Source: Taipei Times
MobileSyrup may earn a commission from purchases made via our links, which helps fund the journalism we provide free on our website. These links do not influence our editorial content. Support us here.
