Samsung usually offers a couple of variants of its flagship models. It either comes with a mainstream Qualcomm Snapdragon unit or their in-house developed Exynos processor. According to a report by Bloomberg, Samsung is reported to have dropped plans of putting a Qualcomm processor in their upcoming Galaxy S6 that’s due in the next few months. The reason? Heat issues with the new Snapdragon 810 processor.
Apparently the new Qualcomm top of the line processor had overheated during Samsung’s tests, which prompts them to stick to their very own in house solution. From a business point of view, it also makes more sense for Samsung to support its own semi-conductor business instead of going to third parties like Qualcomm. The decision would affect Qualcomm negatively as Samsung is their 2nd biggest customer, contributing 12% of its total sales. In Malaysia, Samsung has already showed preference for its Exynos variants when it introduced its Galaxy Tab S and most recently its Galaxy Note 4.
At the moment, there are only 2 smart phones announced with Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 810 processor – LG G Flex 2 and Xiaomi’s Mi Note Pro. According to a statement by LG, there’s no problems running the new Snapdragon 810 processor on its G Flex 2 and they will take all measures to prevent any overheating. The curved LG device is said to be released commercially by end of this month.
In another separate report, the Galaxy S6 might not get additional water resistance like how it did with the Galaxy S5, which came with IP67 rating. The water and dust resistance feature is said to be reserved exclusively for the Active version, so that it is clearly differentiated from the standard Galaxy S6. It is quite a pity considering water resistance is becoming a trend and we believe it should be standard across all flagship models. For example, Sony has been championing its waterproof capabilities while HTC has gotten better with its flapless waterproof micro USB port on the HTC Butterfly 2 and Desire EYE.
