70 percent of Samsung Galaxy S4s will use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chipset, while Exynos 5 devices are reserved for Africa, Asia and Europe
Around 70 percent of Samsung’s initial run of Galaxy S4 handsets will carry Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 600 processor, following alleged production issues with the company’s 8-core Exynos 5 Octa setup.
The Galaxy S4 will be shipping in two varieties: one carrying Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 600, the other Samsung’s 8-core Exynos 5 Octa. Reports suggest Qualcomm’s chipset is more cost-effective and better equipped for LTE.
Regions with limited LTE like Asia, Africa, and parts of Europe will receive the 8-core Exynos 5 version of the handset once it gets released in April, according to sources inside Korea.
The UK is believed to be getting both the Snapdragon 600 and Exynos 5 Octa versions at some point, although Samsung has only confirmed the former so far.
The Exynos 5 Octa chipset will enter mass production in Q2 this year, according to Samsung, meaning it’s likely to become more prevalent and widely available during Q3 2013.
And if you’re worried about performance disparities between the two versions, you really shouldn’t be. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 600 chipset has already been shown to be one of the fastest most power-efficient setups around.
The Exynos 5 Octa has more cores than Qualcomm’s setup but that’s not what matters – it’s ARM’s big.LITTLE technology that will apparently set Samsung’s Exynos 5 apart from the crowd.
The Exynos 5 Octa, thanks to ARM’s new architecture, is expected to be more power efficient than standard mobile processors. We’ve yet to put these claims to the test, but look forward to finding out how it performs soon.
Interested in chips? Find out more about ARM, Qualcomm, and the Galaxy S4’s two chipsets in our interview with ARM’s lead mobile strategist, James Bruce.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 is set for a UK release date in April.
