It looks exactly like the Canadian version that was announced by Samsung Canada last week. Looks great, especially since Qualcomm's S4 seems to beat almost all Cortex A9 SoCs out there. Now that it has 2 GB of RAM, sounds pretty awesome.
Though, slightly disappointed that there will not be any Samsung Exynos 4412 love in US/Canada though just for the fact that Samsung makes very good SoCs, my Nexus S runs on one and I absolutely love this phone, I don't really care if it's considered "outdated".
Considering how large the US is as a market, I don't see how long Samsung can go without making Exynos have an on chip LTE solution. In fact, if it werent for the lack of 4G in widespread Europe, there wouldnt be any major market that would be able to use the Exynos SoC (ok, ok, there's still Asia and Africa).
Both Samsing and also nVidia need to figure this out before they give all their business to Qualcomm.
At least NV isn't their own competitors' customer, and they got a jump start on tablets. They're simply losing out as a design option for some phone OEMs... Samsung relying on someone else's SoC for their own phones isn't exactly a new occurrence either tho, happened last year as well. Both companies will eventually have SoC with built in LTE radios, they have the IP to get it done...
Qualcomm just beat them to the punch this year in many different ways (integrated LTE, A15 based design, early launch, etc.). Last year Qualcomm was lagging behind with an S3 design caught between A8 & A9, and still carved out a few design wins late in the year by virtue of the fact that they were making the first discrete LTE modems and the other SoC weren't always compatible with it.
It's not like LTE is some sort of mystery to Samsung and NV tho, SoC design isn't done by the seat of your pants... They made calculated decisions to cede some early LTE phone sales in the US and they're playing it out now.
With now it being nerfed with just a dual core and a RAM upgrade to help appease us retarded americans who don't know any better as greedy consumers, I'll just stick with my beloved Galaxy Note
I'd rather have a single device setup for Samsung to work on (and provide software updates for) than having some Exynos devices and some Snapdragon's with LTE.
The fact of the matter here though is simple: The Exynos does not have direct LTE support (meaning it loses out on Sprint, ATT, and Verizon Wireless) and it does not have 42mbps DC-HSPA+ support (meaning it loses out on T-MobileUSA). For the American market, the Exynos does not allow the carriers to show off their networks. Period.
Would I rather have the Exynos? Of course. Had Samsung simply made their SGS3 a pentaband device, I would be much happier. But the realities of the market are pretty clear.
Clock-for-clock, those Krait cores are quicker than the Cortex A9s in Exynos. I definitely wouldn't call it nerfed. If anything, the dual-core Qualcomm SoC in the US/Canada version of the Galaxy S III will best the quad-core Exynos in real world performance. Who knows, maybe the rest of the world will be importing the North American version of the Galaxy S III instead of the other way around. Unfortunately, the GPU is another story and won't be as powerful as the Exynos GPU. I have a feeling that very few apps will take advantage of the added GPU horsepower, however. Somewhere down the road that may change.
On another note, it's hard to believe how much has changed in the smartphone market in just two years. When I was buying my phone nearly two years ago, the only two decent smartphone choices on AT&T were the iPhone and the Captivate (Galaxy S).
"Clock-for-clock, those Krait cores are quicker than the Cortex A9s in Exynos"
Indeed. I'd rather have Krait any day of the week for precisely that reason. 4 cores is overkill in a phone, and it means giving up something to get there.
This is a coup for Samsung. Other than Apple, this is totally unprecedented in the US market. I have no idea how they managed to pull this off and get US carriers (all with their fetish for "exclusive" devices) to agree to this.
Now we'll see if other manufacturers (the likes of HTC) can respond to this. Though they have said they want to change and release fewer devices, HTC is unfortunately still trapped in the old game of manufacturing different designs for different carriers, with the result that their top-of-the-line device is only available on one carrier in the US. The argument used to be that Apple is special and no one else can get away with selling the same device to all carriers. But now, surely if Samsung can, so can others.
If there are really no carrier design variants, this will be a huge win for Samsung. But let's see how far it goes in terms of matching Apple:
1) No carrier logos on the device 2) No interference of the carriers in term of Android updates? Directly from Samsung? 3) No carrier software preinstalled?
And also, the press release says "beginning in June". That could mean released on just one US carrier in June.
There will be carrier logos, and updates will definitely come from carriers. Even updates for Galaxy Nexus, when offered by carrier, come from them. Only if you buy the Galaxy Nexus from a retailer (i.e., not a carrier) and buy it outright do you get updates straight from Google.
Still, those are minor issues in the grand scheme of things. For Sammy to convince all US carriers to go for a single design, when just 9 months a go Verizon didn't even pick up the SGSII is a huge win.
Let's see if it makes any difference whatsoever when it comes to updates... Samsung has the worst track record when it comes to that (some US SGS phones never even got Gingerbread, most US SGS2 phones are still waiting for ICS).
They clearly did better in this regard last year with their Euro/world variants, so either their relationships with US carriers are stressed and it impacts the update process or managing all the different variants was more trouble than they cared for.
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13 Comments
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deltatux - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
It looks exactly like the Canadian version that was announced by Samsung Canada last week. Looks great, especially since Qualcomm's S4 seems to beat almost all Cortex A9 SoCs out there. Now that it has 2 GB of RAM, sounds pretty awesome.Though, slightly disappointed that there will not be any Samsung Exynos 4412 love in US/Canada though just for the fact that Samsung makes very good SoCs, my Nexus S runs on one and I absolutely love this phone, I don't really care if it's considered "outdated".
dagamer34 - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
Considering how large the US is as a market, I don't see how long Samsung can go without making Exynos have an on chip LTE solution. In fact, if it werent for the lack of 4G in widespread Europe, there wouldnt be any major market that would be able to use the Exynos SoC (ok, ok, there's still Asia and Africa).Both Samsing and also nVidia need to figure this out before they give all their business to Qualcomm.
Impulses - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
At least NV isn't their own competitors' customer, and they got a jump start on tablets. They're simply losing out as a design option for some phone OEMs... Samsung relying on someone else's SoC for their own phones isn't exactly a new occurrence either tho, happened last year as well. Both companies will eventually have SoC with built in LTE radios, they have the IP to get it done...Qualcomm just beat them to the punch this year in many different ways (integrated LTE, A15 based design, early launch, etc.). Last year Qualcomm was lagging behind with an S3 design caught between A8 & A9, and still carved out a few design wins late in the year by virtue of the fact that they were making the first discrete LTE modems and the other SoC weren't always compatible with it.
It's not like LTE is some sort of mystery to Samsung and NV tho, SoC design isn't done by the seat of your pants... They made calculated decisions to cede some early LTE phone sales in the US and they're playing it out now.
1ceTr0n - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
With now it being nerfed with just a dual core and a RAM upgrade to help appease us retarded americans who don't know any better as greedy consumers, I'll just stick with my beloved Galaxy NoteImpulses - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
"just" a dual core eh?reuthermonkey1 - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
I'd rather have a single device setup for Samsung to work on (and provide software updates for) than having some Exynos devices and some Snapdragon's with LTE.The fact of the matter here though is simple: The Exynos does not have direct LTE support (meaning it loses out on Sprint, ATT, and Verizon Wireless) and it does not have 42mbps DC-HSPA+ support (meaning it loses out on T-MobileUSA). For the American market, the Exynos does not allow the carriers to show off their networks. Period.
Would I rather have the Exynos? Of course. Had Samsung simply made their SGS3 a pentaband device, I would be much happier. But the realities of the market are pretty clear.
duffman55 - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
Clock-for-clock, those Krait cores are quicker than the Cortex A9s in Exynos. I definitely wouldn't call it nerfed. If anything, the dual-core Qualcomm SoC in the US/Canada version of the Galaxy S III will best the quad-core Exynos in real world performance. Who knows, maybe the rest of the world will be importing the North American version of the Galaxy S III instead of the other way around. Unfortunately, the GPU is another story and won't be as powerful as the Exynos GPU. I have a feeling that very few apps will take advantage of the added GPU horsepower, however. Somewhere down the road that may change.On another note, it's hard to believe how much has changed in the smartphone market in just two years. When I was buying my phone nearly two years ago, the only two decent smartphone choices on AT&T were the iPhone and the Captivate (Galaxy S).
ViRGE - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
"Clock-for-clock, those Krait cores are quicker than the Cortex A9s in Exynos"Indeed. I'd rather have Krait any day of the week for precisely that reason. 4 cores is overkill in a phone, and it means giving up something to get there.
aryonoco - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
This is a coup for Samsung. Other than Apple, this is totally unprecedented in the US market. I have no idea how they managed to pull this off and get US carriers (all with their fetish for "exclusive" devices) to agree to this.Now we'll see if other manufacturers (the likes of HTC) can respond to this. Though they have said they want to change and release fewer devices, HTC is unfortunately still trapped in the old game of manufacturing different designs for different carriers, with the result that their top-of-the-line device is only available on one carrier in the US. The argument used to be that Apple is special and no one else can get away with selling the same device to all carriers. But now, surely if Samsung can, so can others.
metafor - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
I get the feeling that it's a matter of clout. Samsung is a far larger company than HTC....Mike1111 - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
If there are really no carrier design variants, this will be a huge win for Samsung. But let's see how far it goes in terms of matching Apple:1) No carrier logos on the device
2) No interference of the carriers in term of Android updates? Directly from Samsung?
3) No carrier software preinstalled?
And also, the press release says "beginning in June". That could mean released on just one US carrier in June.
aryonoco - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
There will be carrier logos, and updates will definitely come from carriers. Even updates for Galaxy Nexus, when offered by carrier, come from them. Only if you buy the Galaxy Nexus from a retailer (i.e., not a carrier) and buy it outright do you get updates straight from Google.Still, those are minor issues in the grand scheme of things. For Sammy to convince all US carriers to go for a single design, when just 9 months a go Verizon didn't even pick up the SGSII is a huge win.
Impulses - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link
Let's see if it makes any difference whatsoever when it comes to updates... Samsung has the worst track record when it comes to that (some US SGS phones never even got Gingerbread, most US SGS2 phones are still waiting for ICS).They clearly did better in this regard last year with their Euro/world variants, so either their relationships with US carriers are stressed and it impacts the update process or managing all the different variants was more trouble than they cared for.