Samsung will unveil the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+ in a couple of days in New York. But the Korean company is also working on the Galaxy S7 that is expected to arrive in early 2016. In July, reports surfaced that the Galaxy S7 is internally code-named Jungfrau. Now a leaked document (via GSM Arena) has surfaced in China, depicting an internal Samsung communication.
Snapdragon 820 offers 35% better performance than Snapdragon 810
The internal document suggests that the Korean electronics giant has switched to “Agile” development process to develop the Galaxy S7 by December 2015. According to the Android M testing document, Samsung is adding support for Jungfrau and ‘MSM8996’ to its software development plan for Android M. Note that MSM8996 is the model number of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 processor.
The Snapdragon 820 SoC uses 14nm FinFET technology with significant improvements over 20nm technology. It offers up to 35% performance improvement over Snapdragon 810. Samsung had ditched Snapdragon 810 in the Galaxy S6 earlier this year in favor of its in-house Exynos 7420 processor. The Snapdragon 810 was reportedly suffering from overheating issues.
Galaxy S7 may bring cheers to Qualcomm
The said document reveals that Samsung is currently testing Snapdragon 820 for Galaxy S7. It’s still too early to say if Samsung will use Qualcomm’s processor in the next year’s flagship device, but it is a positive sign for Qualcomm. Recent reports suggest that the San Diego-based company’s next top of the line processor could arrive in smartphones later this year or in early 2016.
It’s possible that Samsung is using Snapdragon 820 in prototypes while its final hardware may be powered by Exynos. What’s more, Samsung recently unveiled a new camera module that might appear in the Galaxy S7. It is the world’s first 1-micrometer 16-megapixel CMOS image sensor. The new camera sensor will allow for thinner devices and better images in low-light conditions. The smartphone may also feature a 4K Ultra HD display.
