By 
For yet another iteration of the Galaxy line, US buyers won’t get a chance to experience Samsung’s in-house Exynos chipset. For the Galaxy S4, this means a quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor as opposed to Samsung’s Exynos 5 Octa, which packs eight cores of power. But the US won’t be the only region to receive the slightly modified version of the GS4.
Another North American locale, Canada, as well as Sweden are poised to see the Samsung Galaxy S4 with Snapdragon 600 guts. The confirmation comes by way of European carrier Tele2. This means four Krait 300 cores and Adreno 320 graphics as opposed to the latest generation Exynos platform’s combination of Cortex-A15 and Cortex-A7 CPUs with PowerVR SGX544MP3 graphics.
While those residing in a region destined to receive a Snapdragon 600 device might be feeling a bit snubbed, early benchmark reports show that the non-Exynos version of the Galaxy S4 is no slouch. When compared to the Sony Xperia Z and HTC One, devices using the same processor, the Samsung flagship puts up some of the best numbers.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 is expected to start rolling out globally toward the end of next month. Specific release details for carriers in North America have not been announced yet.
[via GSMArena]
Does anyone know the justification of this? Why bother changing the chipset in a device, doesn’t that just mean extra manufacturing processes?
LTE
Is LTE not available with the Exynos chip?
same thing happened last year as well with gs3. they eventually got LTE working but not in time for the gs3 launch, it did make it in by the time the note was released, if I’m not mistaken.
Ah, okay, this is starting to make sense then. I feel better about getting a quad-core phone with LTE than an octa-core without.
It’s not an octa-core. This is a huge misconception of the chipset. It is two quad-core chips that run independently for separate tasks.
That be’s da tr00f!
the gs3 had the same issue but my note 2 doesn’t interesting it comes with exynos and lte radio by qualcomm.
No worries, the Snapdragon 600 is beastmode and supports LTE.
As far as dealing with the overkill 1920×1080 pixels, it should be fine.
The german S4 will also use the Snapdragon 600.
The Dutch version as well.
While it would’ve been nice to see the Exynos 5 in the GS4, it isn’t an actual octa-core processor, as you know. It’s two seperate quads that operate independently for power management. Calling it an “octa-core” is a bit like calling the Nvidia chipset in the Nexus 7 a “penta-core.” It would’ve been great to see the E5 packed in the GS4, but the Snapdragon 600 is a very good processor, and if you put two GS4s in the average person’s hands (with the different chipsets in each phone), it is highly unlikely they’d know the difference. While I haven’t had hands-on time with them both, and I can’t say with certainty, the area most affected *may* be battery life. I don’t think the average person will notice a difference in performance. Time will tell, as always.
We will notice in the time it takes to get updates… Not having the home market chipset means we are second in line.
Not necessarily. Perhaps as far as other providers go, but Sprint has been very good at delivering updates for the D2Spr.
The International version does not rely on any carriers.
I was speaking on the US experience since carriers DO affect update timetables.
my neighbor’s step-aunt makes $70 hourly on the laptop. She has been out of work for 7 months but last month her check was $14813 just working on the laptop for a few hours. Read more on Ask25.com
A single phone does not make a carrier grest at updates.
Where did I say that Sprint was great at updates? Please tell me. Learn how to read.
Also in Finland we wont get the Octa, its because of the HEXA LTE.
Starting to wish I had a gsm phone
Phones going to be a beast…..but all I keep hearing about is the Snapdragon 800 and how advanced that chip will be…. The dilemma!!!
I will DEFINITELY skip this iteration completely, I don’t even want it I’m my hands. Why couldn’t they throw an SoC that was based on ARM 15 architecture in stead of A9. That would at least make the device more battery efficient and more powerful. Not that I care, I’m salivating over the Moto X phone. I have a GS3 so this device doesn’t exite me at all.
Qq
Huh? Both SoC’s are based on A15 architecture?
It’s odd because this happened last time with samsung and htc, both had bigger option worldwide but ended up with the same chip here (murrica) and even tho it was smaller the numbers still added up testwise. Not really mad or happy about it. Just pointing out it’s not the first time.
i hope Australia will get the (S)Exynos octa chip. We got both the exynos quad and qualcomm LTE on the i9305. why didnt the US get that version?
I hope Canada not in it’s entirety. Rogers is GSM, for God sakes!
Oh Samsung…..Not that it truely matter weather its a quad core vs octo-core….but for us OCD people…this drive us nuts! Please, for the future of people that this bothers at the core with no real rhyme or reason, please stop!
Im OCD and a Virgo….so go big or go home! Ill pass or import an octo-core
Ocd, virgo and live at home with your mommy… No hope for you.
Not quite cameltoe. Im married and have my own home. Thanks for playing though!
Once again samsung shows USA no love.
.
I’m gonna try to continue to wait for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 to reach the market!!!
Guarantee the note 3 will get the octa core with lte or maybe even the snapdragon 800 chip. Samsung pulled this bs last time also.
Unless the Exynos SoC packs LTE, I think it will be more than just the US and Canada that end up with the Snapdragon SoC. NZ and Australia claim the S4 will come packing LTE capability, as well as most of the European retailers I’ve seen so far.
I think Exynos has Band 5 LTE for Europe only. Won’t work in US or Canada.
A lot of places are getting the Snapdragon, more than the Exynos it seems.
http://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-galaxy-s4-exynos-snapdragon-models-countries-175804/
Makes me wonder if the Exynos has LTE at all. If it doesn’t, it’s a bit of a fail on Samsung’s behalf. Lazy engineering.
I just noticed Korea is on the list for the Snapdragon SoC. Now I’m sure it doesn’t have LTE. Fail.
so the the snapdragon 600 is the new standard awesome.