Anandtech: Galaxy S4 doesn't use Snapdragon 600

[Kevin OQuinn]

I'm just an occasional visitor but holy cow, what an embarrassing thread! I think I blushed from the second hand embarrassment I felt. Think of all the search engine results that threw people this way, it does not put the staff here in a good light. Volunteer or not, the perception is that Mods are representatives of the site. I don't know how big a deal it is to delete posts but it certainly should be considered in this case.

Here, right from Qualcomm's website. Like I said, perhaps it's all one big conspiracy. You took what an obscure blogger wrote as gospel and then smeared Samsung.

Samsung GALAXY S4 powered by Snapdragon processors: Presale starts today | Qualcomm

So to sum it up. No, it doesn't specify WHICH part number, which like I said above, is what I'm most curious about. Also, ANANDTECH is not some "obscure blogger".

You really don't want to get into "smearing" since all I said was that if they misrepresented what they advertised as something it's not that they were being shady.

So stop going around and SMEARING the ONE please. Also, just of note, this thread was fine until you derailed it many pages back.

 

[crester]

Kevin you are a representative for this Web community. You should act more like it...

 

[madlaw1071]

So to sum it up. No, it doesn't specify WHICH part number, which like I said above, is what I'm most curious about. Also, ANANDTECH is not some "obscure blogger".

You really don't want to get into "smearing" since all I said was that if they misrepresented what they advertised as something it's not that they were being shady.

So stop going around and SMEARING the ONE please. Also, just of note, this thread was fine until you derailed it many pages back.

Face it, you have nothing to support your shady claim that Samsung is using anything other than the 600. And yes, to the public outside these forums no one knows who Anandtech is and even most people here didnt know until last week. Even he doesnt allege anything nefarious, you made that allegation yourself.

I'd say the thread was fine until you took off your moderator hat, put on your HTC hat and made the shady allegation. This is why I suggest you get 2 screen names.

 

[Drov]

So to sum it up. No, it doesn't specify WHICH part number, which like I said above, is what I'm most curious about. Also, ANANDTECH is not some "obscure blogger".

You really don't want to get into "smearing" since all I said was that if they misrepresented what they advertised as something it's not that they were being shady.

So stop going around and SMEARING the ONE please. Also, just of note, this thread was fine until you derailed it many pages back.

I am no expert or Mod obviously but just reading through this thread, it looks like you were in fact the one who derailed it with the very first comment. I am amazed at the rest of your comments throughout the thread as well. Who are you to criticize people for smearing your beloved One anyway? Reading through your posts the last few days you have been poking at Samsung and the S4 as well. They are just phones, they are both great and you are a Mod, I would expect more.

 

[madlaw1071]

So to sum it up. No, it doesn't specify WHICH part number, which like I said above, is what I'm most curious about. Also, ANANDTECH is not some "obscure blogger".

You really don't want to get into "smearing" since all I said was that if they misrepresented what they advertised as something it's not that they were being shady.

So stop going around and SMEARING the ONE please. Also, just of note, this thread was fine until you derailed it many pages back.

And I don't SMEAR the One. I am a ONE owner and have heaped praise on the phone in this and the One forum. Seems quite fan boyish not to be able to handle criticism of an inanimate object.

 

[mpdofficer514]

I don't understand the premise to the article in regards to thinking its possibly a re-vamped S4 Pro, nothing has indicated this. Quite the opposite actually, Qualcomm has confirmed its an S600, see the link posted above. This is all we need to know, I don't care if the part number is different from the S600 in other devices. If anything, it is a slightly different version of the S600 and has nothing to do with a re-vamped S4 Pro...

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

Face it, you have nothing to support your shady claim that Samsung is using anything other than the 600. And yes, to the public outside these forums no one knows who Anandtech is and even most people here didnt know until last week. Even he doesnt allege anything nefarious, you made that allegation yourself.

I'd say the thread was fine until you took off your moderator hat, put on your HTC hat and made the shady allegation. This is why I suggest you get 2 screen names.

If we had to guess, we might be looking at an actual respin of the APQ8064 silicon in APQ8064AB. Assuming Qualcomm isn't playing any funny games here, APQ8064AB may simply be a respin capable of hitting higher frequencies. We'll have to keep a close eye on this going forward, but it's clear to me that the Galaxy S 4 is shipping with something different than everyone else who has a Snapdragon 600 at this point.

From the OP, which is from Anandtech. The "respin" or "dressed up S4 Pro" talk didn't come from me. Using the word "shady" did, because marketing something as something that it's not is shady. I just want to know more about the "special" part number Samsung is using. TONS of people know who Anandtech is, BTW, and well before this week. They've been around for a VERY long time.

Multiple screen names why? So I can be accused of being shady and misrepresenting what I said? No thanks.

I am no expert or Mod obviously but just reading through this thread, it looks like you were in fact the one who derailed it with the very first comment. I am amazed at the rest of your comments throughout the thread as well. Who are you to criticize people for smearing your beloved One anyway? Reading through your posts the last few days you have been poking at Samsung and the S4 as well. They are just phones, they are both great and you are a Mod, I would expect more.

I poke fun at all kinds of devices, and have even noted some faults of the One (the button layout for sure). It's also not a secret that I think the S4 is "meh" and that Samsung should do more with it's monolithic amount of money in the bank to push the entire Android ecosystem forward. Samsung is much better at making money than most other companies, but they're going to fall into the trap of mediocrity, or doing "just enough" while not pushing themselves. Then, they'll find themselves overshadowed by some other company, the way Apple was eventually overshadowed by Samsung. I don't hate Samsung at all, I just want MORE from them. I also don't hate the S4, just that it's made out of the same cheap feeling plastic as the S3 (not debating durability or anything with that statement, just that shiny thin plastic is cheap feeling to me). Oh, and the menu button. I do hate the menu button.

I just find it funny that because I implied that a multi-billion dollar company might do something shady (not illegal, not even necessarily immoral) that I'm all of a sudden the bad guy.

And I don't SMEAR the One. I am a ONE owner and have heaped praise on the phone in this and the One forum. Seems quite fan boyish not to be able to handle criticism of an inanimate object.

I've seen you in the One section bad mouthing it and touting the S4. Don't say you haven't done it.

 

[madlaw1071]

If we had to guess, we might be looking at an actual respin of the APQ8064 silicon in APQ8064AB. Assuming Qualcomm isn't playing any funny games here, APQ8064AB may simply be a respin capable of hitting higher frequencies. We'll have to keep a close eye on this going forward, but it's clear to me that the Galaxy S 4 is shipping with something different than everyone else who has a Snapdragon 600 at this point.

From the OP, which is from Anandtech. The "respin" or "dressed up S4 Pro" talk didn't come from me. Using the word "shady" did, because marketing something as something that it's not is shady. I just want to know more about the "special" part number Samsung is using. TONS of people know who Anandtech is, BTW, and well before this week. They've been around for a VERY long time.

Multiple screen names why? So I can be accused of being shady and misrepresenting what I said? No thanks.



I poke fun at all kinds of devices, and have even noted some faults of the One (the button layout for sure). It's also not a secret that I think the S4 is "meh" and that Samsung should do more with it's monolithic amount of money in the bank to push the entire Android ecosystem forward. Samsung is much better at making money than most other companies, but they're going to fall into the trap of mediocrity, or doing "just enough" while not pushing themselves. Then, they'll find themselves overshadowed by some other company, the way Apple was eventually overshadowed by Samsung. I don't hate Samsung at all, I just want MORE from them. I also don't hate the S4, just that it's made out of the same cheap feeling plastic as the S3 (not debating durability or anything with that statement, just that shiny thin plastic is cheap feeling to me). Oh, and the menu button. I do hate the menu button.

I just find it funny that because I implied that a multi-billion dollar company might do something shady (not illegal, not even necessarily immoral) that I'm all of a sudden the bad guy.



I've seen you in the One section bad mouthing it and touting the S4. Don't say you haven't done it.

What you call "bad mouthing" I call legitimate criticism and comparison to a competitive device. Unlike a true troll or fan boy, I am loyal to no brand. I've owned them all and will jump ship as soon as something better or shinier comes along. Also, I am not criticizing the One without being fully invested in it. I own it and have been using it exclusively. I am therefore qualified to comment. If you read my initial impressions post you will see all the praise I gave it. Unfortunately, the few negatives outweigh the many positives based on my specific usage. And yes, sometimes I like to use my peculiar humor and sharp intellect to tweak people who come off as know it alls or know nothings. I am sorry for that, but it doesnt make me a bad person

 

[LoganK]

I don't understand the premise to the article in regards to thinking its possibly a re-vamped S4 Pro, nothing has indicated this. Quite the opposite actually, Qualcomm has confirmed its an S600, see the link posted above. This is all we need to know, I don't care if the part number is different from the S600 in other devices. If anything, it is a slightly different version of the S600 and has nothing to do with a re-vamped S4 Pro...

Well, all of the Snapdragon 600 processors are re-vamped S4 Pro designs (Krait 200 to Krait 300 is not a huge leap). Looking at what did change, it appears the Krait 300 includes data pre-fetch, improved out-of-order execution, and better branch prediction. I'm guessing that if the S4 was really running a Krait 200, we'd see a noticeable decrease in performance in the benchmarks (wild guess, around 10%) compared to a real Krait 300. Of course this is complicated by the differing clock rates and the fact the operating systems are tuned differently...

And as I mentioned before, all of this speculation is based on some references in the included source. It's curious that Anandtech didn't come out and say the kernel was compiled for a different chip, merely that it included references to another chip.

This also answers an earlier poster's question. How can the Snapdragon be so much better than a Tegra 3 clocked about the same? The difference almost certainly lies in the fact that Qualcomm has an out-of-order execution engine while almost all ARM processors lack this. If this OOE is 3 stages wide as has been reported, then it isn't unreasonable to see nearly double the performance (which is what we are seeing).

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

What you call "bad mouthing" I call legitimate criticism and comparison to a competitive device. Unlike a true troll or fan boy, I am loyal to no brand. I've owned them all and will jump ship as soon as something better or shinier comes along. Also, I am not criticizing the One without being fully invested in it. I own it and have been using it exclusively. I am therefore qualified to comment. If you read my initial impressions post you will see all the praise I gave it. Unfortunately, the few negatives outweigh the many positives based on my specific usage. And yes, sometimes I like to use my peculiar humor and sharp intellect to tweak people who come off as know it alls or know nothings. I am sorry for that, but it doesnt make me a bad person

Fair enough. But, all comparisons to the S4 are based on reviews, not actual hands-on time. The only "advantage" that I have in that regard is that I speak to some of the people that write the reviews, so I might get a little less "editorialized" comment about things. By "speak to" I mean daily conversations. Just to be clear. I won't have any actual hands-on time until they hit stores.

Some of those people have experienced slow downs within the UI itself when none are present on another device that has the "same" chip in it, but clocked lower. The S4 with the same exact chip but clocked faster should have zero lags or slowdowns, especially since the One doesn't have any (I haven't experienced any anywhere). So, what other possible cause could there be? Poorly coded software, or not exactly the same hardware. I have no doubt that a lot of coding went into the software, and that they will fix bugs as time goes by. But we don't know for sure. Possible evidence came out that the hardware might not be identical to the One, and the part number is different. To me, that's huge. To most, it doesn't matter. Oh well. Life goes on. What's important to me doesn't have to be important to you.

 

[madlaw1071]

Fair enough. But, all comparisons to the S4 are based on reviews, not actual hands-on time. The only "advantage" that I have in that regard is that I speak to some of the people that write the reviews, so I might get a little less "editorialized" comment about things. By "speak to" I mean daily conversations. Just to be clear. I won't have any actual hands-on time until they hit stores.

Some of those people have experienced slow downs within the UI itself when none are present on another device that has the "same" chip in it, but clocked lower. The S4 with the same exact chip but clocked faster should have zero lags or slowdowns, especially since the One doesn't have any (I haven't experienced any anywhere). So, what other possible cause could there be? Poorly coded software, or not exactly the same hardware. I have no doubt that a lot of coding went into the software, and that they will fix bugs as time goes by. But we don't know for sure. Possible evidence came out that the hardware might not be identical to the One, and the part number is different. To me, that's huge. To most, it doesn't matter. Oh well. Life goes on. What's important to me doesn't have to be important to you.

I respect the fact that you talk to people "in the know" and are quite knowledgeable. For every review that mentions lag, there probably 5 that say the S4 flies. We shall see over the next few days as the S4 gets in the hands of consumers. If we start seeing lag threads then there is an issue.

If any lag, I suspect it's the bloatware and/or the plethora of features/gimmicks that might slow it down.

FWIW, the One hasnt had a single hiccup yet.

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

I respect the fact that you talk to people "in the know" and are quite knowledgeable. For every review that mentions lag, there probably 5 that say the S4 flies. We shall see over the next few days as the S4 gets in the hands of consumers. If we start seeing lag threads then there is an issue.

If any lag, I suspect it's the bloatware and/or the plethora of features/gimmicks that might slow it down.

FWIW, the One hasnt had a single hiccup yet.

Exactly what was sited as the cause.

 

[madlaw1071]

Exactly what was sited as the cause.

So can we please drop the shady chip argument? LOL

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

So can we please drop the shady chip argument? LOL

Still wanna know about that part number.....

 

[Suntan]

I'm boycotting 100% of devices that won't step up to the minimum standards set by the Nexus devices.

So you're boycotting all LTE phones then? Or just phones with adequate storage?

-Suntan

 

[Averix]

Interesting discovery by Anandtech. It may very well just be a special spin of the 600 line for Samsung. In Qualcomm's own PR material though, this line is buried at the bottom.
"Snapdragon 600 processors include the following part numbers: 8064T"
That makes me question why the Samsung special chip isn't an 8064TAB or something similar if it really is in the 600 family.

 

[gollum18]

Interesting discovery by Anandtech. It may very well just be a special spin of the 600 line for Samsung. In Qualcomm's own PR material though, this line is buried at the bottom.
"Snapdragon 600 processors include the following part numbers: 8064T"
That makes me question why the Samsung special chip isn't an 8064TAB or something similar if it really is in the 600 family.

Hmm didn't I mention that earlier...

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Aquila]

So you're boycotting all LTE phones then? Or just phones with adequate storage?

-Suntan

Boycotts don't always last forever, but there are many devices that have adopted the standards. Many current and, from the assumptions made in renders, apparently future Motorola devices, Asus, my Nexus has 32GB Storage and unlimited LTE from Verizon. Depending on which parts of the rumor trees you're hanging from, there are two separate possible CDMA/LTE Nexus devices this year and the X Phone rumors. I've said multiple times that I think battery life should be measured in weeks, not hours and that I don't get why we're not seeing 128GB and 256GB internal memory devices.

Here's the thing. Any person can make a decision to purchase or not to purchase any device for any reason and that should be okay. I personally look at Android differently than many people (clearly) and I want to see evolution of concept, not incremental spec sheet bumps. Of course they had to improve the screens, that should be happening every time and should be a given. Battery life should improve and the great and useful features available on other branches of Android should become ubiquitous among all branches as they evolve.

To me it's not about making a totally epic high end spec chart topping 2010 style device with a more modern look. It's about making the next device and changes how we use them. I've also been saying for quite awhile that I'm not doing anything until after Google I/O and we understand what Key Lime Pie is about. It could be a minor feature and UI update, in which case the device to showcase it's feature set could be just about anything. It could be a functionality update, in which case designs from the last decade may be limiting the usage. In any case, it's obvious that the refusal of manufacturers to forego the menu button (and physical buttons in general) is detrimental to app design as a whole, creating confusion for developers. This is the cause of the HTC "black bar" and is the only "fragmentation" argument that has any credibility in my eyes since Ice Cream Sandwich was released.

 

[Suntan]

...Samsung should do more with it's monolithic amount of money in the bank to push the entire Android ecosystem forward.... ...Oh, and the menu button. I do hate the menu button.

Personal opinions aside, when you guys constantly harp against Samsung (and LG and others) about physical menu buttons being staid and lacking in "future-ness" please be aware that you are talking against the desires of a sizable portion of the android buying community. Namely, there are a lot of us that actually *prefer* dedicated and/or capacitive buttons and feel that onscreen buttons on phones is a bad design choice that Google has made.

So while you are personally rooting for one design feature vs. another please dial it back with the insinuations that continuing those features is "lacking" creativity or willingness to change. Because a lot of us don't want that change.

As for helping Google to press forward with new standards, I personally would prefer that some of the larger OE manufacturers continue to force Google to keep the options open. And you guys should cheer that in addition to pointing out the downsides of it.

-Suntan

 

[Aquila]

Personal opinions aside, when you guys constantly harp against Samsung (and LG and others) about physical menu buttons being staid and lacking in "future-ness" please be aware that you are talking against the desires of a sizable portion of the android buying community. Namely, there are a lot of us that actually *prefer* dedicated and/or capacitive buttons and feel that onscreen buttons on phones is a bad design choice that Google has made.

So while you are personally rooting for one design feature vs. another please dial it back with the insinuations that continuing those features is "lacking" creativity or willingness to change. Because a lot of us don't want that change.

As for helping Google to press forward with new standards, I personally would prefer that some of the larger OE manufacturers continue to force Google to keep the options open. And you guys should cheer that in addition to pointing out the downsides of it.

-Suntan

Very good point; the differentiation creates choice which is good for consumers. It probably is a balancing act between choice and evolution, but in my vision of the future of these devices, button interaction is extremely limited if used at all (even the on screen sort).