Rumor: Samsung Galaxy S4 to have different chipsets in different regions
This is one rumor we don’t want to hear as we come up on the eve of Samsung’s March 14th Unpacked event in New York City. According to JP Morgan via Taipei Times, Samsung could be looking to launch the Samsung Galaxy S4 with two different sets of silicon. Rumor has it that those in Europe will be getting the Samsung Galaxy S4 with the new Exynos 5 Octa chipset, while those of us in the United States would have to live with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 600 chipset.
If true, it wouldn’t be the first time Samsung has done something like this. The Samsung Galaxy S3 launched in the United States with a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 chipset, largely because an LTE modem wasn’t ready for the device’s Exynos chipset by the time it reached market. This problem was cleared up by the time the Galaxy Note 2 launched, a phone which featured Samsung’s own-built chipset in nearly every market it sold in.
No word was given on why, exactly, Samsung would go this route for its 2013 flagship. We have a hard time believing the Korean manufacturer doesn’t have a grasp on LTE modems by now. Other factors might be in play here, as well, such as cost or insufficient production capital (whether it be shortcomings with Samsung’s manufacturing line or with scarce resources). The Snapdragon 600 is no slouch, but we’d be lying if we said we’d hoped to see Samsung’s latest chipset innovations inside all of its 2013 flagship handsets.