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Samsung Galaxy S II Officially Getting a 200MHz Boost?

25

What an interesting rumor to start the week off with. It’s been said that Samsung is preparing to launch an edition of the Samsung Galaxy S II with a bump in processor speed. The modified SoC – Exynos – would be virtually the same as it is in currently available handsets, except the CPU’s clock speed will get a 200MHz boost to make it 1.4GHz.

It’s said that the change is to help Samsung better compete with the iPhone 5, which many believe will come with the A5 dual-core processor found in the iPad 2. Whether Samsung will be banking on the marketing buzz words or actual device performance with this boost, we can’t say, but we’re banking on the latter considering Apple’s A5 is clocked at 1GHz on the iPad 2 which should be more than enough for the next iPhone.

We also can’t say where they’re aiming to launch these variants. And, surprise, we can’t say if existing users will be able to get in on this as we’re not sure if this would be enabled solely through software. What we  can definitely say, however, is that we’re excited to see what Exynos can do clocked at those speeds. [via GSM Arena, Thanks Fayez!]

Quentyn Kennemer
The "Google Phone" sounded too awesome to pass up, so I bought a G1. The rest is history. And yes, I know my name isn't Wilson.

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25 Comments

  1. Don’t care, i could run 1.4Ghz but 1.2Ghz is fast enough (@1.175V VS 1.275V stock) :)

  2. even Exynos at 1.2GHz is overkill and is basicaly “newer generation” of what A5 is offering in iPad2, which (as a chip) is inferior.

    So SGS II doesn’t need to compete, its SoC is currently the best in the market, better than tegra2 and so on…

    A4 is a complety joke with 2 years old chips, A5 is finaly better but “dual core” marketing won’t buy you recent GPUs or CPUs which competition is already using (be it from qualcomm, TI or Samsung…)

    1. Samsung is still trying to one up Apple, like with the Tabs being thinner and lighter. :P They are not happy about the law suite and just want to give them the finger.

      1. And i believe that’s exactly what Samsung needs to do. Apple needs more than just the middle finger from Samsung.

        1. Are you talking about a fist somewhere dark :D Steve needs exactly that!

          1. omg, I laughed.

    2. Not defending Apple – I’m a HTC fan personally – but the GPU in the A5 is probably the best around. Ahead of the SGS2 in GLBenchmark 2.0 Egypt and just behind in Pro, while pushing way more pixels. I’m talking averages here from stock devices (not the top SGS2 results which are clearly gamed). Poor old HTC Sensation is not even close to either.

      http://www.glbenchmark.com/phonedetails.jsp?D=Apple+iPad+2&benchmark=glpro20&var=avg
      http://www.glbenchmark.com/phonedetails.jsp?D=Samsung+GT-i9100+Galaxy+S2&benchmark=glpro20&var=avg

      1. GPU is better, but a SoC is much more than just a GPU :)

        So 1 benchmark witch aims at GPU speed doen’t prove anything.

        1. + 1×100000

          “the GPU in the A5 is probably the best around. Ahead of the SGS2 in GLBenchmark 2.0 Egypt” 

          My words exactly. ONE SINGLE benchmark score aiming at GPU speed doesn’t prove ANYTHING. He obviously hasn’t done any gaming on the SGS II. Butter smooth =  Galaxy on Fire, Chaos & Order, RIptide GP, list goes on and on.

    3. Not trying to pop your bubble. But the graphics performance with the A5 is actually better than any other chip out there (dual core that is). Not mentioning it does not devour battery like its counterparts does. Instead is designed hand in hand with Apple’s own software iOS to conserve battery.

      1. Yes you’re right. Due to “to-da-metal” software optimization, Apple is able to optimize graphical performance in a better fashion than linux software engineers at Samsung could, on their new Kid – as of right now.

        But as SoC features goes, A5 is limited to 720p output via HDMI in HD videos (although it can play 1080p), doesn’t accelerate any other HD codec apart from H.264 (which is fine, my preferred codec of choice but Exynos list dozens of formats which are supported, both in video and music) and is clocked at 1GHz “only”. Still better then Tegra2 though, which failed here.

        1.4 and Exynos is big win, and no, you can’t do any battery optimization “in games”, the GPU is used on 100% on both platform. You can do power optimization of whole SoC though….

    4. Along with agreeing with the others about the A5 being probably the best right now…the A4 was nothing to sneeze at either. It had a PowerVR 535, the Galaxy S 1 had a PowerVR 540.The Droid X1 had a PowerVR 530, just clocked a lil higher than the 530 in the Droid 1. The gpu in the Droid 1 was even seen to be equal to or better than the gpu in the Incredible and EVO in some instances.

      The PowerVR is a nice gpu.

      Dont look at benchmarks of the iPhone 4 and think its sucks. The lower benchmarks for the iPhone 4 are effected by the screen resolution.

      Since no other phone really had that screen res at that time…there was nothing to really compare the iPhone 4 to in benchmarks. Unless someone coulda did a benchmark of that Android phone overseas that had the same screen res.

      If anything…Apple does use decent hardware and software in their phones. That something we have to give them credit for.

      1. when you optimize the software for the hardware wonders can happen. see meego for example. Hopefully icecream sandwich will bring more improvements to various arm chips

  3. Could easily just be a software change. It only needs a modified kernel.

  4. stilll waiting for this to drop.  I have an LG enV3 and am chomping at the bit to get this.  WHERE IS IT!????????????????

    1. champing at the bit

      1. i stand corrected.  why champ though…?  aren’t they biting on the bit?

  5. I just hope their modifications don’t cause any battery life issues or other problems. Samsung had the perfect device and now they’re screwing around with it.

  6. Samsung should know what the a5 packs. Correct me if I’m wrong but Samsung makes the a5 right? So they know!

  7. Where’s the new Samsung player 4, and 5?

  8. My S2 is currently running at up to 1.5GGz with a custom kernel, but i generally have it set at stock speeds or lower which are more than enough.

  9. can the us simply get the phone? please? :(

  10. Official SGS II Update to Ice Cream Sandwhich from 2.3.4 which includs 200Mhz CPU boost???

    Now that would be the Update of the year.

    But seriously. 1.2GHz is more than overkill as it is on the SGS II. We need bigger and more powerful software to test the Exynos.

  11. This phone runs too hot already. 200Mhz more?

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