Qualcomm reveals “large customer’s flagship” won’t use Snapdragon 810, all signs point to Samsung

A week ago, to the date, we first caught wind of a report from Bloomberg claiming that Samsung would be relying on its own Exynos processors for the Galaxy S6, with the biggest reason being that Samsung had reportedly ran into overheating issues while testing out the Snapdragon 810. Now Qualcomm has seemingly confirmed that this is more than just a rumor.

While Qualcomm didn’t directly say Samsung isn’t using the Snapdragon 810 in its next-gen flagship, they did reveal that they are adjusting revenue expectations for the second half of the year due to the fact that a “large customer” has elected not to use Qualcomm’s latest chip in their flagship device. Putting two and two together, it seems more than likely that Samsung is the large company that Qualcomm references, as few other OEMs are big enough to make Qualcomm completely readjust their revenue expectations.

Samsung is one of the Qualcomm’s biggest customers and so losing them for the GS6 is a massive blow.

So does this mean that all Samsung Galaxy S6 devices will use Exynos processors? Not necessarily, it is still possible a small number could utilize Qualcomm chips — 810 or even older chips like 805. That said, it seems like a safe bet that, at the very least, that the majority of Galaxy S6 variants will ship with Exynos processors this time around. This is a pretty big change for Samsung, who has used Exynos chips in select variants of its flagships for years but has never rolled them out in markets like the United States.

As for Qualcomm, Samsung is one of the chip maker’s biggest customers and so losing them is a massive blow for the generally most popular mobile chipset maker in the world. Of course, Qualcomm still has plenty of partners that are lining up to use the Snapdragon 810, including LG who has already utilized the chip in their LG G Flex 2. What do you think, are you okay with the idea of a Galaxy S6 without a Snapdragon inside? For those that were considering buying the GS6, will Samsung’s decision to (more than likely) go all-Exynos at all cause you to consider another device instead?

Snapdragon 810 issues may put the heat on Qualcomm

By now, you’ve likely heard that Qualcomm is having issues producing its latest high-end processor, the Snapdragon 810. That’s not uncommon in an industry where products are literally measured in microns. Only problem is, a lot of smartphone makers depend on Qualcomm for their application processors, meaning that the heat is on, literally and figuratively, for the chipmaker to figure out a solution.

Last week we heard that Samsung is going to drop Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 chip from the Galaxy S6, and replace it with an Exynos chip of its own production. That would be a huge blow for Qualcomm, given that Samsung is one of its biggest clients, and the Galaxy S series is Samsung’s bestselling device.

WSJ later reported that, in a bid to get Samsung to use Snapdragon 810 at least for some of its Galaxy S6 production, Qualcomm is scrambling to modify the chip, with a “fixed” version to be presented to Samsung in March.

Last minute changes are relatively common in chip manufacturing, as an analyst cited by Korea Times points out:

“In this sense, there is a chance Qualcomm will provide a modified version for Samsung to use in the Galaxy S6 model, but this is usual before massive production. For Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics is one of the most important partners, so the company is likely to show some reaction to the issue.”

However, if Qualcomm admits that it modified a design for Samsung, it could get in hot water with other clients. LG and Xiaomi are the two companies that have announced Snapdragon 810-powered devices, the G Flex 2 and Mi Note Pro, respectively.

Citing a source close to the matter, Korea Times reports that LG may even be tempted to call out Qualcomm over the issue:

“If Qualcomm officially confirms it will modify the Snapdragon 810, it means that the company admits the chipset has a flaw. Then it could trigger legal disputes.”

To be clear, that doesn’t mean that LG will necessarily sue Qualcomm over the Snapdragon 810. It’s just that, depending on the agreements between the two companies, LG could claim that Qualcomm has not kept its end of the bargain.

LG has already denied that the G Flex 2 (not the Snapdragon inside) suffers from overheating, though this wording leaves room to interpretation.

While irritating LG is just a possibility for now, another side effect of this debacle could give Qualcomm some real headaches – the resurgence of Exynos chips. For the last few years, Qualcomm has copiously dominated the mobile SoC industry. While Samsung, Nvidia, and Intel managed to get their chips into some devices, Qualcomm owned most of the market, especially at the mid and high-end. MediaTek, focusing on entry-level devices, has been the only real competition.

This faux pas could give Samsung the chance to sell the upcoming Exynos 7420 as a real alternative to Snapdragon 810, at a time when the company is looking for ways to keep profits in-house. Not only would Qualcomm lose major orders from Samsung, other clients may be tempted to use Exynos chips in their devices.

‘Galaxy S Edge’ name spotted in Vodafone site source code

For a while now we’ve heard rumors suggesting at least one variant of the Samsung Galaxy S6 will offer up an edge display somewhat similar to the Note Edge. More recently we learned Samsung will allegedly offer dual edges this time around, alongside other improvements that should alleviate some of the issues consumers had with the original Note Edge.

Looking for more proof of the Samsung Galaxy S6’s Edge model? As first reported by Netherlands-based Galaxy Club, it seems that a new placeholder page for the Galaxy S6 has now appeared on Vodafone Netherlands’ website. At first glance, there’s really nothing to learn from this page, but digging into the source code reveals an interesting tidbit: a developer note makes mention of the need to add a “pre-order form for Samsung Galaxy S Edge” in the future.

While obviously this is a placeholder page and the note could simply be based on anticipation of an Edge model and not because Vodafone has definitive proof from Samsung, we have to admit that the idea of the name “Galaxy S Edge” makes a lot of sense. After all, Samsung didn’t call the Note Edge the Note 4 Edge. Of course there is still the possibility that the dual-edged model won’t use the “Edge” moniker at all, but we wouldn’t be too surprised if this possible leak proves true.

Unfortunately nothing else can be sleuthed from reading the source or looking at the placeholder page. What do you think, could Galaxy S Edge be the final name of the dual-edged GS6?