Exynos vs Snapdragon

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KCRic

Senior Member
Aug 4, 2010
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268
Overland Park
I got involved in a discussion in another forum that's turned into why the North American Galaxy series has a Snapdragon and not the Exynos. What are your thoughts?

Mine comes from the Sprint S2, we were told it had the Exynos because of WiMax. The Exynos wasn't compatible with the LTE modem at the time so everyone else had the Snapdragon. Now, its due to energy issues and it sucking the battery because of, I can only assume, compatibility issues. Yet, the Note 3 has the Exynos and can use LTE, right?

So what gives? I don't care about which SoC is better - that would go on for months. Just the reason behind the choice.

Sent from inside the matrix
 
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elesbb

Senior Member
Jun 20, 2010
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5,324
T-Mobile note 3 has snapdragon 805 I think. Actually I think all variants do. I always read that snapdragons were actually better in performance standards and architecture of chip is why. Even though exynos may have a higher clock rate the snapdragons actually do calculations "better". Back when one of the galaxy series came out, I watched countless YouTube explanations explaining which is "better". As to why they use one in a us brand versus international version, no idea.

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KCRic

Senior Member
Aug 4, 2010
1,230
268
Overland Park
I don't think we'll ever know, honestly. For every article I point out showing why my reasoning is correct, there's another stating the complete opposite. I thought there was some plausibility to it being about money but my Exynos phone wasn't any more expensive than the Snapdragon version. Then there was the conspiracy theory about carriers controlling what SoC's go in phones, time travel, Kennedy. There might be a shred of truth in that story I'm just not sure where. Oh internet...

I liked my S2 but I have to say, the Snapdragon has always been a beast (you can OC the hell out of them too) and there's way more development support with them.
 

HKSpeed

Senior Member
Apr 3, 2012
987
269
Los Angeles
Someone once told me that Qualcomm has intellectual property rights to certain CDMA LTE modem technologies in the USA. This especially applies to CDMA phones for Sprint and Verizon. If that is true, then it is cheaper for Samsung to use Qualcomm LTE chips since using Exynos LTE chips would require a licensing agreement with Qualcomm.

Edit: I found this article that explains it: http://www.tmonews.com/2012/05/editorial-why-a-snapdragon-s4-galaxy-s-iii-is-awesome/
Excerpt:
"But if you are thinking that other carriers will get SoCs other than Qualcomm’s in the future, you’d probably be wrong. Most LTE modems do not support U.S. Digital Dividend frequencies, which means the LTE networks of AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and most regional carriers will be stuck with Qualcomm’s modems. T-Mobile can use non-Qualcomm LTE modems because the AWS band T-Mobile is using is a standardized band that is well-supported. Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and most regional carriers operate CDMA2000 networks, which means they have no choice but to use Qualcomm’s modems, since no one else makes CDMA2000 modems because Qualcomm owns all the IP rights to the cdmaOne/CDMA2000 technologies. Maybe once CDMA2000/LTE carriers start offering devices that don’t support CDMA2000, then we’ll see non-Qualcomm Snapdragon LTE devices on those networks, provided that U.S. Digital Dividend, ESMR+Cellular 850, and Extended U.S. PCS bands are all supported by non-Qualcomm modems by then."
 
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    I got involved in a discussion in another forum that's turned into why the North American Galaxy series has a Snapdragon and not the Exynos. What are your thoughts?

    Mine comes from the Sprint S2, we were told it had the Exynos because of WiMax. The Exynos wasn't compatible with the LTE modem at the time so everyone else had the Snapdragon. Now, its due to energy issues and it sucking the battery because of, I can only assume, compatibility issues. Yet, the Note 3 has the Exynos and can use LTE, right?

    So what gives? I don't care about which SoC is better - that would go on for months. Just the reason behind the choice.

    Sent from inside the matrix