Samsung is forever tinkering with its devices, even after official release. The Galaxy Note 4 has managed to a few millions sales, but the South Korean electronics giant is unsatisfied with the performance.
In a new report from SamMobile—who are usually right when it comes to anything Samsung—a new Galaxy Note 4 variant is being tested in South Korea, on SK Telecom and KT carrier services.
The new Galaxy Note 4 will run the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chipset. The Snapdragon 810 looks to be a huge upgrade over the 805, with an 8-core 64-bit configuration, 3x20MHz carrier aggregation for more LTE bands, the Adreno 430 GPU and super-fast battery life.
The Adreno 430 GPU is an extensive upgrade over the previous GPU, capable of running 4K video and rendering 3D console-level graphics. Qualcomm has went all out on the Snapdragon 810 to make it a significant upgrade over the predecessor.
Samsung will leave the rest as it is, making this a small upgrade for new customers buying the Galaxy Note 4. It is a weird way to upgrade the smartphone — instead of half a year upgrades to the whole device.
It is not the first time Samsung has upgraded their flagship mid way through the year. The Galaxy S5 got a similar upgrade a few months after launch—disappointing customers who had already bought the device.
Samsung does not work the same way as Sony and LG, who launch new flagships every six months. To keep their own flagships in check, they will add the latest upgrades and then start shipping the revamped version a few weeks later.
There is no phone on the market currently running the Snapdragon 810 CPU and the Galaxy Note 4 may be the first. The Galaxy Note 4 is already one of the most powerful smartphones available, and this should up the performance even more.
