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Samsung To Ditch Snapdragon on Galaxy S21 (RUMOR)
Why? It’ll make the Samsung Galaxy S21 cheaper than the Galaxy S20, among other things…
The Samsung Galaxy S21 range will launch inside Q1 2021. As before, there’ll be a few models on offer. But unlike previous years, 2021 could be the first time all of Samsung’s Galaxy S21 run on the company’s Exynos platform, instead of Qualcomm’s soon-to-be-announced Snapdragon 875.
As usual, this leak comes via Twitter and is completely unverified. However, the source of the news cites several reasons why Samsung would ditch Qualcomm’s CPUs in favor of its own Exynos 100 CPU. And they are as follows:
- It’d make the Samsung Galaxy S21 cheaper
- It’d mean more profit for Samsung
- The Exynos 1000 might be better than Snapdragon 875
This is apparently Samsung’s alleged reasoning for making the switch. On paper, sure, it makes sense. But it is all contingent on Samsung’s Exynos 1000 CPU serving up something that can rival Qualcomm’s incoming Snapdragon 875 platform.
It’s also worth noting that plenty of users aren’t too happy with Samsung’s current Exynos chipset inside the Galaxy S20. The performance, apparently, isn’t quite on par with Snapdragon 865-powered Galaxy S20 handsets.
Could Samsung remedy this issue with the Exynos 100? Perhaps. But it is a very risky move, especially when you consider that the Galaxy S line of phones is Samsung’s biggest seller.
Why try something this risky on your flagship? Why not road-test it on a cheaper model, like one of its Galaxy A series of phones? I have no idea. But, again, we’re talking about pure speculation here, so take everything discussed with a massive pinch of salt.
What’s The Deal With Samsung’s Exynos 1000?
Well, first off, it won’t be here until 2021. Next, it will likely run ARM’s newly announced Cortex-A78 and Cortex-X1 SoC and core architecture, which is expected to bring 20% performance gains.
“The new Arm Cortex-A78 CPU answers the call for performance gains combined with more efficiencies in power and area,” said ARM in a press release.
“In fact, the Cortex-A78 is unquestionably our most efficient Cortex-A CPU ever designed for mobile. It will enable multi-day, immersive 5G experiences thanks to a 20% increase in sustained performance over Cortex-A77-based devices within a 1-watt power budget, and more efficient management of compute workloads along with greater on-device Machine Learning (ML) performance.”
Similarly, there is also talk of Samsung co-developing a mobile GPU with AMD that will potentially be included inside the Exynos 1000. And given the current shake-up in the chip market, one driven by the cost of Qualcomm’s silicon, Samsung could well be positioning itself as a potential option for phone makers looking for cheaper alternatives, like Google.
Whatever happens, the Exynos 1000 is definitely something to keep an eye on. As is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 875. It’ll be interesting to see how the dust settles on this one, given that Samsung is one of Qualcomm’s biggest customers. Imagine if that changed and Samsung became Qualcomm’s biggest competition?
2021 just got a lot more interesting…