2015 has been a strange year for Samsung. It completely redesigned all its premium smartphones and split its smartphone and phablet form factors in two (Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, Note 5 and S6 Edge+). Perhaps most impressive, however, was its ability to step away from Qualcomm QCOM +2.08% and produce its own bullet fast chipset to power them all. But now a U-turn appears to be on the cards…
With the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge expected early in 2016, the ever reliable SamMobile has discovered we shouldn’t expect two smartphones but four. It has learnt the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge will go by the model numbers: ‘SM-G930’ and ‘SM-G935’ respectively but they will be split into two further distinct groups: Qualcomm Snapdragon and Samsung Exynos.
Yes, it appears Samsung is ready to step back in time and let Qualcomm have a share of its premium smartphones. Previously Samsung had road tested its Exynos chips by equipping them in phones in its native South Korea, but pushed the safer Snapdragon to the rest of the world before stepping out on its own with 100% Exynos for its premium models in 2015.
Now things are a little different.
Galaxy S7 concept. Image credit: igalaxys7.com
This time around it appears that what you get will be almost potluck with SamMobile revealing the following Snapdragon variants: China (SM-G9300, SM-G9350), Verizon (SM-G930V, SM-G935V), Sprint (SM-G930P, SM-G935P) and US Cellular (SM-G930R4, SM-G935R4). While Exynos variants are the international unlocked models (SM-G930F, SM-G935F), T-Mobile (SM-G930T, SM-G935T), AT&T T +0.00% (SM-G930A, SM-G935A), Canada (SM-G930W8, SM-G935W8) and Korean variants (SM-G930 S/K/L, SM-G935 S/K/L).
No doubt many more will follow as Samsung (and all other handset makers) have to tweak their phones to comply with different countries’ rules and regulations. SamMobile speculates that the split could be Snapdragon models for CDMA carriers, but more data is required to confirm that.
Originally Published On Forbes
By Gordon Kelly
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