Samsung might be looking to drop Qualcomm’s chipset for the upcoming Galaxy S6, according to internal sources that claim the chipset is creating thermal issues on the smartphone.
Qualcomm hinted that the adoption for the Snapdragon 810 would be lower than previous expectations in its earnings report, lowering the volume of shipments to compensate for Samsung’s change.
The Snapdragon 810 already runs on the LG G Flex 2 and Xiaomi Mi Note Pro, and will most likely be added to the LG G Pro 3 and HTC One M9, but for some reason Samsung is having issues with the Galaxy S6.
Samsung will now have to look for a new provider to replace Qualcomm, and the only other options are Samsung’s own Exynos processing unit, Nvidia or MediaTek, the latter is not popular in the West.
The Galaxy S6 will reportedly run on 4GB of RAM, but all of the other components are up for debate due to the current situation with Qualcomm. It might end up with Samsung paying Qualcomm to develop a custom chip for Samsung’s Galaxy S6.
Samsung had a terrible 2014, only selling 15 million Galaxy S5 units and losing in overall sales to Apple’s iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. It has hired ex-Apple designers and other talent to work on the design of the Galaxy S6.
It will also apparently strip down TouchWiz to basic features, making it look like Google’s stock Android—makes you wonder why Samsung doesn’t just adopt full stock Android.
Samsung is holding off on announcing an event date and with the current setback it could take months before we see the Galaxy S6.
