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The Samsung Exynos team’s official Twitter account has confirmed that the new Exynos 5 Octa chip not only supports LTE, but all 20 bands of it. So what gives with the Galaxy S4? The phone, as we all know by now, will be released in two variants: the GT-I9500 and the GT-I9505. The latter will deploy a Snapdragon 600 SoC.
The assumption was that Samsung had to use the Snapdragon 600 to provide LTE support for regions like the US and UK, leading many to believe that the Exynos 5 Octa simply did not support the wireless standard. It would not be unprecedented, as the Exynos 4 lacked the prerequisite hardware to take advantage of the next-gen 4G standard, leading to a similar dual-model release for the Galaxy S3.
Samsung’s decision could actually have more to do with supply and demand, with Samsung allotting the easy-to-obtain Snapdragon chip for regions that should see high demand as the company slowly ramps up Exynos production. That still doesn’t quite explain the discrepancy in 4G support. It seems like more than a coincidence. Perhaps the Exynos 5 Octa still needs a bit of tweaking before it lives up to the proper standards of power consumption and performance when it comes to LTE.
[via PocketNow]
This one is easy, because they have to have an exciting chip to put in the Galaxy S5…
that’s not the case. They shafted the s3 users the same way and will probably continue to do it even with the s5. note is the way to go. The latest exynos will be in the note 3 just as was the case with the note 2.
I have the note 2 exynos chip plus qualcomm lte antenna.
Doesn’t matter when the Snapdragon 600 is a beast. Whichever is the smallest and draws less power at this point.
Splitting between the Snapdragon 600 and Exynos 5 is probably due to supply limitations though.
supply issues is probably the best explication
Funny because Qualcomm doesnt own any fabs, and Samsung does. Maybe Samsung is busy making S.O.C.’s for Apple.
True but the 28nm fab used by the Snapdragons is excellent. Bested only by Intel’s 22nm which sadly isn’t even used for mobile.
why should they do that. To sammy its not about android vs apple, its about money, if they can make millions and billions off of android and then make millions and billions off of another company that uses there hardware, why not, they bringing in money from both end, sad to say but its people like us that go back and forth about what product is better comparing specs but majority of people are so blinded by mainstream that they would by regardless of strong processor vs. stronger processor, sammy making mad money
That’s where they get most of their money from.
600 has the same GPU as the S4 pro which is about as powerful as the iPhone 4s’s GPU…
didn’t they do the same thing last iteration? snap dragon for the S series and Xynos for the Note series?
question: does anyone know if the xynos octa supports USB3.0, or where i may be able to find out?
I suppose, because the Samsung Chromebook ARM has an Exynos 5 Dual and it has a USB 3.0 port.
it does support usb3.0
If Google comes out swinging with the XPhone it won’t matter anyways. Not to mention Sony and HTC both have really awesome products about to hit the shelves. This year is going to be a tough call, but there’s a very real possibility I’ll be leaving Samsung after owning the Galaxy S I, II, and III.
I left Samsung after the GS1. That thing was amazing day one and garbage day 60 or so.
Its one heck of a device that has CM support up until now and it still runs much smoother than some of the crappy HTC i own (htc rezound (worst of the worse), one xl).
The HTC Evo 4g was always a better phone than the S1, even now.
The humming bird smoked the snapdragon in the evo I owned the evo and was jealous of my girls epic
You know there is more to phones than S.O.C ‘s right? I dont know if you lived in a city with WiMax but Samsung is infamous for horrible radio’s and well Wimax was on shitty spectrum already so mix the two together and you got crap!
Cleveland, my evo was laggy would actually freeze….not everyday but a Solid 4 times outta the week hers would run much smoother i was always grabbing that sucker lol
my OG evo begs to differ
I await the announcement of the “XPhone”. Sony Xperia and HTC One do nothing for me.
Count me in on waiting for the XPhone. Two screens in on a GS3, I’m never going Samsung again. As thin and light as my phone is now, I actually sometimes miss the rugged metal brick feel of my Droid 1. That thing seemed unbreakable. It also had way better reception.
Yeah my SGS3 is a great device, but I miss the reception of Moto. I lose signal way to easily on my SGS3. My DX was a beast in that department. Always had better reception than my wife’s iPhone. Now it is the opposite.
Motorola always has great reception, and my Note 2 does as well. Maybe Samsung will get it right again with the S4 and Note 3, but I’ll wait and see before I buy any Samsung phone. The Droid X had amazing sound quality to, I wish Motorola stuck with the 3 mics instead of dropping down to 2 which puts them on par with everyone else.
I had the opposite experience – my Atrix HD was always dropping signal, while my GS3 has been rock solid.
My Note 2 gets way better reception than my wife’s Motorola Photon Q. But, my wife’s Motorolla has way better reception than my old GS2. Seems like Samsung stepped up their radios in the newer devices.
I get great reception outside and in solid coverage areas. I live in Colorado and can quickly get to fringe coverage. When I am in the mountains, my SGS3 loses signal way before my DX did and way before my wife’s IP4 or IP5. It also loses signal in stores very easily. My DX never had that issue. Like I said, in town, it’s great. Fringe areas it’s not good at all.
I never really cared for Sony products before (their Bravia TV’s are great, but too expensive relative to the competition), but their newest phones look great. I’m still not leaving my Nexus phones, though (Galaxy Nexus for personal, Nexus 4 for work).
I prefer Qualcomm personally. Exynos is fine as far as performance, but Qualcomm seems to have better compatibility and features. And of course Qualcomm is much much better about releasing source.
How dare you! Mention Qualcomm will have higher distribution on flagship phones, and more advantages for developers, therefore making apps better suited for Qualcomm therefore leaving the Exynos power basically untapped.
I’d rather the snapdragon any way when the sIII was released those the had the exynos chip had a major security issue where vital personal information was accessible. There could also be the fact that perhaps its really not ready for full on LTE functionality I mean come on you expect sammy to admit that ?
They add more cores yet no timely LTE, shows you their priorities
Why would they prioritize LTE? There are only a few markets that have it. The new chip however would be a lot more efficient for all markets where it would be available.
because an 8 core processor is pointless if no one is taking advantage of it, due to its limited distribution. The majority of the western world where Samsung sells the most S4’s will receive the Qualcomm. No serious developer will take the time to optimize for Exynos.
There’s a lot more than a few markets that do not have LTE. I think you’re blowing USAs consumer power. It is not bigger than the rest of the world combined. And a lot of people who live in the US also don’t care about LTE (because they don’t live in an area that has or for whatever other reason).
Will the international model work on US LTE networks, or will the LTE portion of the hardware be disconnected? It will be very interesting to see whether or not the devs at XDA can get the Exynos version working on US LTE networks, especially given T-Mobile’s new service plans and the ability to BYOD without worries!
most likely as long as its unlocked and you’re not trying to use Verizon or Sprint you should be good.
If I were to buy a Samsung Galaxy S4, I would “feel” I am bummed out without the new Octa processor. Although I know by heart that Snapdragon 600 is equally capable, I still would love seeing Octa in my phone. The grass on the other side is always greener, isn’t it?
A100milllion devices they predict on sales is a lotta chips, I think this is the reason but most likely if they don’t buy the snapper chip they will not get the chip, they b like HTC down graded to junk status
They dont seem to have trouble supplying Apple.
WHAT?!?… WHAT?!?…. I’m starting to think that Samsung hates me on a personal level! :-P
The whole reason I haven’t upgraded yet is because first of all their downgrading the S3 from a quad to a dual. And now, not only are they doing the same with the S4, BUT… apparently not only am I hearing that they gimped the LTE version…. but they DIDN’T HAVE TO?!?!? Man, it’ll be a cold day in well… it’ll be a long time before I pick up this phone. I feel like I SHOULD vote with my wallet and not buy this phone, not because it’s not awesome or anything like that, but just to express my frustration with their actions.
I know I know, I’m a bitter old guy, and I should just get over it, but the processor manufacturers are making me feel very unloved. :-(
Anybody else?
ROFL
The international LTE bands are different from the US. LTE bands
Why would people buy the s4 when the note 3 will have the octa core with lte here in north America I would be pissed off if 3 or 4 months after buying the s4 they release a better phone note 3 all the way.
The note three, if it turns out to be 6.3in like speculated, would simply be to big for me.
more 5.9″ they will probably go the same way as they did with the s4 as in 5″ screen inside a smaller case than the original s3… so the note 3 will have a bigger screen but in a smaller body than note 2.