Samsung Galaxy S7 Specs and Release Date: Qualcomm To Send Improved Next-Gen Snapdragon 820 Chipsets For Galaxy S7 Trials

Sep 02, 2015 02:35 PM EDT

It has only been a few months since Samsung launched its current generation Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge flagship. Now, the South Korean tech giant is already rumored to be working on its S6 successor--the Galaxy S7.

A new report out of China claims that Qualcomm has started shipping it latest and unreleased Snapdragon 820 chipsets to Samsung to undergo testing for the Galaxy S7. The American electronics company is said to be supplying an enhanced version 3.X of the Snapdragon 820 component.

The version 3.X test sample will reportedly have better heat dissipation properties, a 5-10% improvement in performance, and will require lower power consumption.

Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets have been used by Samsung in its various range of mobile devices for years. However, the Qualcomm product is notably absent from the South Korean device maker's 2016 lineup including the Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, and the newly launched Galaxy Note and Galaxy S6 Edge+.

Flagship models from other manufacturers such as the LG G4, Nexus 6, and HTC One M9, have all been equipped with Snapdragon 810. However, it is widely believed that Samsung has abandoned Qualcomm's component because of its persistent overheating issues.

It is worth mentioning that the source of this Snapdragon 820 Galaxy S7 testing comes from the same Weibo user who shared a graph about upcoming chipsets last month. The said graph shows a handful of next-generation processors including Apple's A9 & A9X, Samsung's Exynos M1, and the NVIDIA Denver 2.

Unlike the current 810 chip, the Snapdragon 820 will benefit from Qualcomm's proprietary cores called Kryo. There will be four custom Kryo cores along with the powerful Adreno 530 GPU. Additionally, Samsung will be manufacturing the chip using its 14nm FinFET process.

This new information supports by earlier reports about Samsung's alleged move to rigorously test Snapdragon 820 prototypes to ensure that it will not be encountering the same thermal problems as its predecessor.

The report came from Dreamx, a South Korean publication, which also claimed that Samsung will be offering two variants of the Galaxy S7 to be released next year. One is said to be equipped with the abovementioned Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 and the other will be powered by the company's own Exynos processor.

The Snapdragon variant of the Samsung Galaxy S7 is expected to be offered mainly in the United States and other Western counties as the Qualcomm chipset is known to be compatible with various networks in the region. On the other hand, the Exynos variant will likely be intended for the company's native South Korean market.