Early this morning, Samsung announced the Exynos 4 Quad, a powerful 1.4GHz quad-core processor that will debut in the upcoming Galaxy S III Android smartphone when it’s announced on May 3rd. According to Korea Times, however, that may not be the whole story. In an interview with an unnamed Samsung executive, it was reported that U.S. variants of the Galaxy S3 will actually use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 dual-core chip, while devices in Europe and Asia will stick to Samsung’s in-house Exynos 4 Quad.
“Samsung plans to release its Galaxy S III smartphone according to different specifications and different markets. For European consumers, it will use 3G and the company’s own quad-core mobile APs, while its own solution that combines LTE, 3G and quad-core mobile APs will be used for the Korean version. But only in the United States, will Samsung use Qualcomm chips.”
This wouldn’t be the first time a smartphone manufacturer altered their original flagship model in dramatic fashion to better support the growing 4G LTE technology tied to major carriers in the United States. The HTC One X launched in Europe/Asia sporting Nvidia’s quad-core Tegra 3 processor, but the AT&T One X and Sprint EVO 4G LTE were designed with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 technology. Samsung has also pulled a similar CPU swap in the past with regional models of its monstrous Galaxy Note smartphone-tablet hybrid.
While the latest S4 chips have proven to be quite impressive, there will likely be some disappointed consumers as the Exynos brand has earned a rather notable reputation. Also, Samsung’s purported insistence on using Snapdragon S4 to power U.S. Galaxy S3 models could prove to be quite costly in regards to a supply shortage for rivals LG and Pantech, who rely on Qualcomm’s chips to power many of their mobile products.
Source: Korea Times via GottaBeMobile
