Report: Samsung Galaxy S7 will have Snapdragon 820 in US & Chinese markets, Exynos elsewhere

Following evidence suggesting that Samsung has tested at least two revisions of the Snapdragon 820 processor in its next flagship, the Galaxy S7, a new report claims that the upcoming smartphone will indeed ship with Qualcomm’s next high-end chip. Korean publication, ETNews claims that Samsung will be targeting its biggest markets (America and China) with the SD820-equipped smartphone…

The publication states that, although the US and China will get the Snapdragon versions of the Galaxy S7, Exynos still very much features in the company’s plans. As in years prior to 2015, it seems Samsung might be planning to manufacture devices featuring the next Exynos processor for release in Europe, Southeast Asia (including Korean) and others.

If the rumor is true, it would surely come as something of a relief for Qualcomm who will be keen to forget 2015 as soon as possible. Samsung deciding not to include the Snapdragon 810 chip in its Galaxy S6 and Galaxy Note 5 handsets was a damning decision, one which set the tone for Qualcomm’s flagship processor of 2015. Sammy’s decision was made based on the chip overheating during testing, a problem which continued with handsets like the HTC One M9 and Xperia Z3+ when they first landed on store shelves.

The issues didn’t stop companies like OnePlus and Huawei using it in the OnePlus 2 and Nexus 6P respectively. But the very fact that LG and Motorola both opted for the hexa-core SD808 in favor of the octa-core SD810 suggests it wasn’t just Samsung who had concerns about the temperamental processor.

With low-cost chips like those from MediaTek now making their way to handsets on the low-end of the market, and Samsung going with its own, Qualcomm was forced to make changes and cut jobs as its financials took a tumble. Still, there’s a silver lining here. The Snapdragon 820 is a chip we can look forward to. Not only does it offer advanced, fast charging and super-fast connectivity, it’s also more power efficient and will feature built-in anti-malware protection.

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 will purportedly hit the market next year, and Samsung could — once again — be flying the flag for the the company’s flagship processor. Of course this is all rumors for now, but if it turns out to be true, 2016 should be a much better year for the once-kings of the processor world.