Galaxy S6 to ditch Qualcomm in favour of Samsung Exynos chip Samsung Exynos chip
SAMSUNG WILL DITCH QUALCOMM and use its own microprocessors in the next version of the Galaxy smartphone, expected to be called the Galaxy S6.
The Korean firm is said to be dropping Qualcomm's Snapdragon processor owing to overheating problems during testing, according to "people with direct knowledge of the matter", Bloomberg said.
Samsung will not, therefore, use the Snapdragon 810 and will instead supply the processor from its own Electronics arm.
The decision will be damaging for Qualcomm, which has made chips for most of Samsung's best selling phones. The firm's shares fell on the news.
It also suggests that Samsung is trying to become more self-reliant and make use of its growing processor division. The firm recently spent $15bn on a new factory outside Seoul.
"Samsung may release the next Galaxy S as early as March, and it can't take the risk of using any of the chips in question for its most important model," Song Myung Sup, a Seoul-based analyst at HI Investment & Securities, told Bloomberg.
LG made a similar move last year, entering the chip market for the first time with a smartphone processor called Nuclun.
The chip made its debut in the G3 Screen, a smartphone developed specifically for the Korean market.
The Nuclun features an eight-core architecture and LTE-A Cat 6 network capability "for high performance and low energy consumption".
Making its own processors might make it faster for LG to develop smartphones, but it remains to be seen whether the strategy will prove successful in the long term.
Either way, it certainly isn't good news for Qualcomm, which also supplies chips for LG Android smartphones
SPECULATION SURROUNDING the so-called Galaxy S6 are already coming through thick and fast, suggesting that Samsung could be planning an imminent launch.
This wouldn't be all that surprising. Samsung's fortunes have taken a turn for the worse this year, after the firm posted a 60 percent fall in profit in the third quarter owing to slowing sales of its smartphone line-up.
Samsung is no doubt looking to turn this around, and will be hoping that the Galaxy S6 will help.
We've rounded up everything we know about the Galaxy S6 so far, including release date, price and specifications. Be sure to keep this page bookmarked as we'll be updating it as soon as we hear more.
Release date
While it's still unclear when the Galaxy S6 will make its debut, rumours are pointing to an unveiling at Mobile World Congress at the beginning of March 2015.
If last year's Galaxy S5 launch is anything to go by, the S6 will go on sale a month or two later.The Galaxy S5 launched in February before arriving on shelves on 11 April.
Price
There's no word yet regarding how much the Galaxy S6 will cost at launch. However, we'll assume that it will be priced similarly to last year's model, which Samsung offered from £579 SIM-free.
Specs
If online speculation is to be believed, Samsung will 'go back to the drawing board' with the Galaxy S6 in a bid to boost the firm's faltering smartphone business.
Taking a leaf out of Apple's book, the Galaxy S6 will reportedly be crafted from metal as Samsung edges away from plastic smartphones which could be to blame for slowing sales.
Weight has been further added to this rumour courtesy of Nowhereelse.fr, which has posted an image of a metal frame allegedly belonging to the Galaxy S6 (below). Since, however, others have claimed this is in fact an early Galaxy A5 prototype.
According to a report at Business Insider, Samsung will be launching a second version of the Galaxy S6 alongside the metal version. This model reportedly will feature a curved display, similar to that seen on the Galaxy Note Edge.
VoucherCodes.co.uk, for example, suggests that the Galaxy S6 will feature a 5.5in curved display, and has provided a mock up of what it could like like (below).
Conflicting with previous rumours, the website also speculates that the handset will feature a rubberised-plastic rear.
The display is expected to have a higher resolution than the Galaxy S5, which featured a 1,920x1,080 Full HD display. It's likely that Samsung will look to challenge the likes of the Nexus 6 and LG G3 with a QHD 2,560x1,440 screen resolution.
Much like the Galaxy S5, this display will be paired with a fingerprint scanner. However, rather than the swipe-based offering on the Galaxy S5, Sammobile claims that Samsung will opt for a touch-based sensor, similar to that found on the iPhone 6.
With a February launch on the cards, it's also likely that the Samsung Galaxy S6 will arrive running Google's Android 5.0 operating system.
If a recent video leak of Lollipop running on the Galaxy Note 3 is anything to go by, Samsung will skin the Material Design interface with its custom TouchWiz offering while retaining Google's redesigned fonts and logos.
With Android 5.0 onboard, it has also been suggested that the Galaxy S6 will launch with a 64-bit processor. This is likely to be Samsung's own Exynos 7420 or Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810.
According to speculation, the handset will feature Samsung's Exynos LTE modem and Broadcom’s new BCM4773 processor, which combines GPS and other sensors on a single chip.
There's also talk that the handset will feature even faster 4G speeds than its predecessor, with a report via GforGames claiming that the Exynos chip will feature Cat 10 LTE support, allowing for download speeds up to 450Mbps.
The Galaxy S6 is expected to feature a 16MP camera with "better Optical Image Stabilisation than the Galaxy Note 4", a 5MP front-facing camera, and 32GB, 64GB or 128GB internal storage. Samsung has apparently canned the 16GB model.
According to a report at SamMobile, Samsung will also debut the 'Galaxy S6 Edge' alongside its next flagship smartphone, which will feature a quirky curved screen similar to that seen on the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge.
No further details about the mooted handset have yet been spilled. µ
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Carly Page
Carly Page joined The INQUIRER as News Editor in April 2012. Before becoming a full-time geek, Carly studied Journalism at the University of Lincoln, and dabbled in...
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