Looks like some recent rumors about Samsung ditching the Snapdragon 810 in the Samsung Galaxy S6 are starting to grow some strong legs. Qualcomm today announced that more than 60 devices with the latest Snapdragon 810 chipset are in the works in a move likely made to combat murmurings that manufacturers are having overheating problems with the chip.
They name-dropped some of the devices we already know about such as the LG G Flex 2 and the Xiaomi Mi Note, so no surprise there. But they even confirmed forthcoming Snapdragon 810 devices from companies who haven’t made formal announcements yet.
Sony Mobile senior vice president Gen Tsuchikawa, Motorola Mobility president Rick Osterloh and Oppo vice president Sky Li all submitted their typical feel-good words for inclusion in the press release and noted their intention to stuff Snapdragon 810 inside at least one of their smartphones this year.
Notice one big name not on this list? Samsung — the biggest Android manufacturer — doesn’t have a single mention here. We can’t say for sure that this confirms the aforementioned rumors (in fact, another report suggested Samsung was getting a special version of the chipset), but it sure doesn’t help.
It should be mentioned that HTC is also notably missing from the press release, and they’re rumored to be using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 for the upcoming HTC One M9 (Hima). They also don’t have the luxury of using their own chipset so it’s unlikely HTC will be going with anything else.
Either Samsung’s really looking to ditch Qualcomm for the Samsung Galaxy S6 (Qualcomm confirmed that they lost the business of a huge partner, which in turn made their stock take an epic nose dive) or we’re all being thrown for a loop. Good thing the company just scheduled a March 1st press event to put all the uncertainty to rest.
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