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Samsung's looking to supercharge its chip division with its latest all-star hire
Lin Jun-cheng will oversee the advanced packaging team at Samsung
While Samsung comfortably leads the smartphone industry with devices like the Galaxy S23 Ultra, its fortunes in the chip industry have been different. The company's key rival, TSMC, dominates the segment, although Samsung has tried its best to gain parity, even coming close on some occasions. So it would be a big win for a company like Samsung to have some of the industry's best talents on board to fulfill its ambitions in the semiconductor business. The manufacturer has done exactly that by hiring former TSMC engineer and industry veteran Lin Jun-cheng.
Qualcomm announces May 20 event, and it may bring the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus
It may also lift the curtains on the much-awaited Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chip
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Barring Samsung and Huawei phones, chipsets in the Android world are virtually limited to one of two choices — Qualcomm or MediaTek — and the options only thin as you enter the flagship realm where the former enjoys near-total domination. But the competition's been fast warming up, with MediaTek's latest offerings giving the other chipmakers a run for their money. To one-up that and quite possibly improve on the shortcomings of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, Qualcomm's now teased a new event for this week — and it's expected to launch an update to its flagship processor.
There's a new trend emerging from the lessons that smartphone companies have learned over the past few years. In an attempt to have greater control over every step of the phone-making process, they're looking to develop their own chips. Only a day after Google launched the Pixel 6 series with its new Tensor SoC, we're hearing that Oppo is also embarking on a similar journey.
Xiaomi and Oppo plan to take on Qualcomm with their own smartphone chips
Creating independent supply chains before they become the next Huawei?
We only recently reported that Google was working on its own smartphone chip, but it looks like the company isn't the only one in the Android world wanting to go independent. A new report from DigiTimes (via Android Authority) claims that Xiaomi and Oppo are working on their own 5G-compatible chips.
Mid-range Snapdragon 775 SoC spotted in alleged Qualcomm leak
Documents indicate it is based on the same 5nm fab process as the 888
The Snapdragon 765 is a pretty great chip, combining a selection of the high-end features of Qualcomm's 800 series with a lower price that puts it on the higher end of the mid-range category. According to an alleged leak on Telegram, the next upgrade to this class will be significant. The Snapdragon 775's biggest change is a shift to the smaller and more efficient 5 nanometer fabrication process, as seen on the 888.
Samsung’s flagship 5nm Exynos 992 rumored to enter mass production in August
Could this chip be destined for the Note 20?
While those in North America are treated to Qualcomm-powered Galaxy phones, Samsung forces its in-house Exynos SoC on buyers in most other markets. While capable, Exynos chipsets rarely manage to one-up their Snapdragon counterparts, both in performance and power efficiency. Samsung could change that with its upcoming 5nm flagship chip that is rumored to enter mass production sometime in August.
The Snapdragon 768G is Qualcomm's latest mid-tier 5G processor for gamers
A special edition of the Redmi K30 gets the chip before others
Everybody wants a 5G phone these days, but what's that tech going to cost you? We’re beginning to see an influx of mid-range phones that can latch onto a 5G network, without you having to pay the ultra-premium price of flagships. One thing that’s common across these devices is their processor — the Snapdragon 765G, which Qualcomm introduced not too long ago. Just a few months later, the chip maker is already announcing a follow-up with a few minor upgrades, the Snapdragon 768G.
A month ago, Google explained why it doesn't support 4K video recording at 60fps on its latest flagships (or any of its phones, for that matter): It said the majority of users stick with 1080p, so it'd rather focus on improving that mode and avoid large storage consumption by 4K 60fps videos. As it turns out now, there might be another reason related to the Pixel 4's Snapdragon 855 processor, which always pulls images from the two rear cameras at once.
Qualcomm is undeniably the darling of Android OEMs, with their chips being the only viable option for flagship smartphones and tablets. That's something MediaTek would obviously like to change with its latest premium SoC, the Helio P90.
It's been two and a half years since Qualcomm revealed its first dedicated wearable chipset, Wear 2100, and, in that time, there's been no major update. This has led to some doubt regarding the chipmaker's interest in the market — a crucial element for Wear OS' continued existence, considering Qualcomm powers 80 percent of Android smartwatches out there now. The San Diego chipset giant asserted its continued intention to dominate the Wear OS market today, however, with the reveal of Wear 3100 — and the subtext of the announcement has indications for the industry at large.
When an OEM chooses a Qualcomm SoC for a phone, the first thought is whether to include a top-of-the-line Snapdragon 800 series chip or something cheaper. The 700 series was recently unveiled, but before that the next best thing has been a 600 series processor such as the Snapdragon 660. Qualcomm's latest announcement introduces a successor, the predictably named Snapdragon 670.
When it comes to making processors for Android smartphones, Qualcomm is by far the market leader. MediaTek trails, focussing mainly on budget hardware, and then there are proprietary chips from the likes of Samsung and Huawei, but they aren't used outside of a few of their own products.
The Exynos 9 Series processors were introduced by Samsung almost a year ago, and we've seen them used in the company's flagship phones of 2017. With the announcement of the Galaxy S9 nearing, it's time we learned a little about the chip that will be running the show (outside of the US and China, which will get Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 845 processor), so Samsung has lifted the covers off the Exynos 9810 SoC.
We've been hearing for some time now that the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL would have either the Snapdragon 835, Qualcomm's current flagship chipset, or a slightly more powerful Snapdragon 836. However, it turns out that there was never a Snapdragon 836 in the first place.
Nearly all phone manufacturers use SoCs (system-on-a-chip) from other companies, like Qualcomm or MediaTek. Exceptions to that rule include Apple's A series, Samsung's Exynos processors, and Huawei's Kirin platform. Xiaomi is now joining in with the Surge S1, the company's first SoC developed completely in-house.
Have you recently stopped to think about what modern smartphones can do? It's amazing how much power is packed into these small little devices that we carry around all day, and it's even more amazing that most of that power resides in teeny tiny chips that are lodged somewhere between the huge screen and the big battery.
Qualcomm's current top processor is the Snapdragon 810, which is only shipping in the LG G Flex 2 and set to appear in upcoming flagships like the HTC One M9. But at Mobile World Congress the chip manufacturer is already taking the wraps off of its next-gen design, the predictably-named Snapdragon 820. Details on the exact capabilities of the new chip are scarce, but Qualcomm says it should be ready to ship to mobile manufacturers sometime in the second half of this year.
Look, we get it - MediaTek isn't the first name you want to hear when it comes to innovative new SoCs. The company doesn't have the best reputation when it comes to releasing source code, which is a huge no-no in the Android world. But still, this is probably worth talking about, because it's pretty neat.
New phones and tablets aren't the only thing that Samsung will unveil in Barcelona. A recent Twitter post indicates that the company will reveal a new line of Exynos mobile processors, cryptically titled "Exynos Infinity." The post from the official Exynos account omitted any other details, but a debut during the Samsung Unpacked event on February 24th (concurrent with, but technically distinct from, Mobile World Congress) is a safe bet.