Samsung Said to Have Exclusive Access to Snapdragon 820 SoC Till April

The rumoured Xiaomi Mi 5 may not house a Snapdragon 820 SoC, as a listing on an e-commerce website recently suggested. A new report claims that Samsung has an agreement with Qualcomm that gives it an exclusive access to the chipset until April 2016. This suggests that the company’s anticipated Samsung Galaxy S7 smartphone will be the first handset to have Qualcomm’s latest offering.

A media report coming out of China says that smartphone manufacturer Samsung has inked a deal with chipmaker Qualcomm to prevent any other company from using the Snapdragon 820 processor on their devices until April 2016.

If the claims in the report are true, Samsung could have a competitive advantage over its rivals for at least a few weeks. And those few weeks could give Samsung a major lead in the smartphone market for being the only manufacturer to ship a Snapdragon 820-equipped handset. This contradicts a listing that went live on Oppomart, claiming that Xiaomi’s Mi 5 will have Snapdragon 820 SoC, as the company is reportedly planning to launch the smartphone in January.

It is worth pointing out that Samsung shipped the Galaxy S6 with its homegrown Exynos processor. Reports suggested that the company ditched Qualcomm’s offering out of overheating concerns. Samsung continues to hold the tentpole position in Android market, and Qualcomm wouldn’t want to lose a client of such stature. Which puts weight on why the two companies may have partnered.

A report earlier this month claimed that Samsung will launch as many as four different variants for its next flagship smartphone: Samsung Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 Plus, Galaxy S7 Edge, and Galaxy S7 Edge Plus. The latter two will have dual-edge displays.

A report on The Wall Street Journal claimed that the Samsung’s upcoming flagship smartphone will have a pressure sensitive display. The feature will be similar to the 3D Touch display which the iPhone 6s and the iPhone 6s Plus come equipped with. The report further noted that the Galaxy S7 could also feature a microSD card slot, which is in line with an earlier report. The company is expected to launch the Samsung Galaxy S7 at MWC 2016, which will be held in February.

These features, coupled with the Snapdragon 820 - and being the only smartphone to have the processor for at least a few weeks - could give Samsung an advantage over LG, Huawei, Sony, who’re all likely to use the same chipset in their flagship smartphones next year.