the humiliated Exynos division of the choice of the Galaxy S20 under Snapdragon 865 in Korea

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If some differences may exist, the user experience in principle remains more or less the same on the two versions, with close performance. This year, however, the power difference between the SoC Snapdragon 865 and theExynos 990 is much more marked.

And it is not only a sight of the mind since Samsung Electronics has made the choice to offer on its own national market the versions of the Galaxy S20 with SoC Snapdragon 865, inflicting a severe snub on the Exynos division.

The choice this year is undoubtedly particularly dictated by the better energy efficiency of the Snapdragon 865, a significant point at the time of the transition to 5G to avoid ending up with a starvation autonomy.

But for consumers, paying the premium price of a premium smartphone for such a difference in performance does not necessarily go well. According to the Korean press, the choice to offer the version with Snapdragon 865 in Korea and not the models under Exynos 990 took many people by surprise at Samsung but was dictated by marketing considerations in full development of the 5G market.

Those responsible for Samsung LSI (the semiconductor division of the Korean group) took the decision as a humiliation and tried to change the management’s mind, without success.

At the same time, maintaining an Exynos chip is part of a survival strategy that would put the Korean group at the mercy of Qualcomm with its requests for royalties and its negotiations on volumes, if it had to rely only on SoCs. Snapdragon.

The Exynos division therefore remains relevant and one of the remaining opportunities consists in offering mobile chips to other manufacturers, such as the Chinese Vivo, which has just announced a model under Exynos 990.

To try to get back into the race, Samsung has abandoned the development of custom CPU hearts on its processors to turn to standard ARM licenses.

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