Samsung Galaxy Note III will most likely feature the Exynos 5 SoC

Samsung is also showcasing the processor for other potential clients.

Read the whole story

 

[Vycia]

said the unnamed Samsung executive

Nice to see Samsung will hire those without a name. I bet Apple would have assumed his resume was an error and tossed it without a second look.

 

[TimothyAWiseman]

I love my Galaxy Note II and part of what I love is its large screen. But a phone needs to fit comfortably in my pocket and a phone that is substantially over 6 inches seems to stretch that. I hope the rumor about the screen size proves false and they keep it closer to the size of the Note II.

 

[fenris_uy]

I love my Galaxy Note II and part of what I love is its large screen. But a phone needs to fit comfortably in my pocket and a phone that is substantially over 6 inches seems to stretch that. I hope the rumor about the screen size proves false and they keep it closer to the size of the Note II.

I also hope that they go with a smaller screen, if not it would look like they created a popular market (+5 inches phones) and then abandoned it.

 

[Postulator]

said the unnamed Samsung executive

Nice to see Samsung will hire those without a name. I bet Apple would have assumed his resume was an error and tossed it without a second look.

I'm not entirely clear what you're trying to say here. Are you saying that companies can't give "background" briefs that are not quite formal? Are you aware that it's common practice for people to speak "off the record" or "on condition of anonymity"?

Or maybe you're just another Apple fan who thinks there's something to have a dig at when in fact there's nothing at all untoward.

 

[Number_One_Fandroid]

I love my Galaxy Note II and part of what I love is its large screen. But a phone needs to fit comfortably in my pocket and a phone that is substantially over 6 inches seems to stretch that. I hope the rumor about the screen size proves false and they keep it closer to the size of the Note II.

People have been posting comments like these ever since screens exceeded 4". Maybe you yourself won't buy it, but there's definitely a market for it. I will be surprised if by Note V they haven't merged the 7" tablet and the phone.

 

[Bluskye]

An electronics company that does everything under the sun, including manufacturing CPUs to only support its mobile division .... hello MOTO.

Does android even efficiently support big little? Apple has already shown, its not the general purpose processor that gives you silky transitions, its the GPU.

 

[vshade]

I love my Galaxy Note II and part of what I love is its large screen. But a phone needs to fit comfortably in my pocket and a phone that is substantially over 6 inches seems to stretch that. I hope the rumor about the screen size proves false and they keep it closer to the size of the Note II.

People have been posting comments like these ever since screens exceeded 4". Maybe you yourself won't buy it, but there's definitely a market for it. I will be surprised if by Note V they haven't merged the 7" tablet and the phone.

The first Galaxy Tab was this, I Have a friend who has the tab 2 7" with celular and uses it to make calls, normal calls, not google voice or other service calls.

 

[uhuznaa]

With two SIM cards on the same number and an additional very small and basic dumb (or small and cheap smart-) phone this would be workable. Have the small phone in your pocket for phone calls and maybe texts, get the phablet out of the bag or backpack for convenient net access. Well, of course you could also do this with a decent not too large smartphone and a Nexus 7.

Hmm, I was very sceptical about huge smartphones and now I think I was wrong. Smartphones have become such an integral part of people's lifes that the burden of a huge phone seems to be bearable. But this also means people have become very unwilling to even leave their homes without their phone and *always* carrying such a monster seems to be a tiny bit too much, I think. Although there surely are people who never go anyway without a bag anyway.

 

[JPan]

I love my Galaxy Note II and part of what I love is its large screen. But a phone needs to fit comfortably in my pocket and a phone that is substantially over 6 inches seems to stretch that. I hope the rumor about the screen size proves false and they keep it closer to the size of the Note II.

I also hope that they go with a smaller screen, if not it would look like they created a popular market (+5 inches phones) and then abandoned it.

Unless the Galaxy S4 becomes a 5" phone in that case they would need to move the Note up to differentiate them a bit. They may try to change the screen without increasing the phone size. There is still a tiny bit of bezel on the S3

 

[OrangeCream]

I'm confused why it's called Octo Core if big.little only allows 4 cores to be active at once?

Isn't that the case? It's a quad core with 4 high power and 4 low power cores and one is active at a time?

Otherwise you can call an Optimus GPU setup dual-GPU, no?

On another note, and relevant to Samsung's chip business, isn't the success of the chip business directly and inversely correlated to the success of their phone business?

Meaning that if they can sell 150m SoC a year that they are therefore 'losing' 150m potential cellphone customers to the competition?

 

[Skiddywinks]

I'm confused why it's called Octo Core if big.little only allows 4 cores to be active at once?

Isn't that the case? It's a quad core with 4 high power and 4 low power cores and one is active at a time?

Otherwise you can call an Optimus GPU setup dual-GPU, no?

big.LITTLE is indeed spec'd capable of using all 8 cores at once, if needed. Although AFAIK it is not a standard, so Samsung could have gone either way on that. I'm hoping they have gone that route, otherwise it is a very dirty marketing ploy they have used calling it "octo-core".

 

[Fozzybare]

said the unnamed Samsung executive

Nice to see Samsung will hire those without a name. I bet Apple would have assumed his resume was an error and tossed it without a second look.

I'm not entirely clear what you're trying to say here. Are you saying that companies can't give "background" briefs that are not quite formal? Are you aware that it's common practice for people to speak "off the record" or "on condition of anonymity"?

Or maybe you're just another Apple fan who thinks there's something to have a dig at when in fact there's nothing at all untoward.

/whoosh

 

[Frenetic Pony]

I don't know about the CPU, but I'm going to make a PHONE that's 10". It's friggen BRILLIANT! I'll be a billionaire in no time, take that "Tablets". My device is better, because it's a PHONE.

 

[TheGame]

I'm confused why it's called Octo Core if big.little only allows 4 cores to be active at once?

Isn't that the case? It's a quad core with 4 high power and 4 low power cores and one is active at a time?

Otherwise you can call an Optimus GPU setup dual-GPU, no?

big.LITTLE is indeed spec'd capable of using all 8 cores at once, if needed. Although AFAIK it is not a standard, so Samsung could have gone either way on that. I'm hoping they have gone that route, otherwise it is a very dirty marketing ploy they have used calling it "octo-core".

big.LITTLE MP is the tech that allows all eight cores to be used at once. Since Samsung has not specifically mentioned it in their CES press, nor in these "leaks", my guess is that they'll tout that as their next big breakthrough later this year/next.

As for me, I don't care about the Note III, I'm hoping this makes its way to the GSIV. Makes it a bit more worrisome that this story that came out is about the Note III using it, because it's not a story that the Note does if the GSIV does first...

Hopefully won't be too long til that news is unveiled.

 

[amyklai]

I don't see how using all 8 cores simultaneously on a big.LITTLE arch makes much sense - the 4 slower cores are so weak performance wise that it will hardly matter.

 

[weiran]

Every smartphone maker apart from Apple is obsessed with the bigger is better philosophy, mainly I assume because they can put pricier and higher end components as well as compare better on the spec sheet. Personally I much rather have the 3.5" size and form factor of the original iPhone, but other than the iPhone 5 there is literally no choice under 4.7" if you want a high-end phone.

 

[The Penguin Commander]

said the unnamed Samsung executive

Nice to see Samsung will hire those without a name. I bet Apple would have assumed his resume was an error and tossed it without a second look.

I'm not entirely clear what you're trying to say here. Are you saying that companies can't give "background" briefs that are not quite formal? Are you aware that it's common practice for people to speak "off the record" or "on condition of anonymity"?

Or maybe you're just another Apple fan who thinks there's something to have a dig at when in fact there's nothing at all untoward.

He's making a joke.

 

[genomecop]

Every smartphone maker apart from Apple is obsessed with the bigger is better philosophy, mainly I assume because they can put pricier and higher end components as well as compare better on the spec sheet. Personally I much rather have the 3.5" size and form factor of the original iPhone, but other than the iPhone 5 there is literally no choice under 4.7" if you want a high-end phone.

I always thought the same thing and then I bought a Note 2. Now I can't imagine EVER going back to a "small" screen phone. Pricier components? Don't know, but unlocked is about the same price as an unlocked iPhone.

 

[EnticingHavoc]

OK let me guess. What more can I do if the CPU/GPU is double the speed ?
Ahh .. uhhm ... well ... yeah ... scrolling is smoother. Ohh great.

Better games ? I guess not because Android games have to run smoothly on all Android powered devices. So the weaker devices dictate performance requirements.

 

[57Stew]

In my line of work I constantly write "back of the napkin" notes when at a job site. Keeping up with scraps of paper or a note pad was problematic. I went with a convertible which was heavy and had poor battery life. Switched to an IPad which inreased the battery life but was still cumbersome. I have gone to the Note 2 and it is nearly ideal. The note apps are well suited to my situation and I don't have to bring a phone along. The only downside is the sreen size is a bit small for my sketches some times. The bigger Note 3 may be what I am looking for. I have never been a fan of the bluetooth headsets but there may be one in my future with a bigger phone.

 

[Azurescens]

I'm another for hoping the screen size turns out to be a rumor. At 6' 8" with pretty big hands, larger phones are a great fit for me. I love my Note II, but even it's pushing the limits of what I can comfortably carry in a pocket and use one handed. If the III does get bigger, I'll have to look elsewhere for my next upgrade.

 

[Oskiee]

I don't see how using all 8 cores simultaneously on a big.LITTLE arch makes much sense - the 4 slower cores are so weak performance wise that it will hardly matter.

The idea is to put less resource heavy tasks on the slower cores. Things like say... Evernote, or syncing. And then harder, more resource heavy tasks on the faster cores. Like Netflix, or a game, or something.

Its actually quite genius because the quads themselves can shut down cores as needed to save power.

I'm wondering if that big.LITTLE controller is hackable though. Would be interesting if i could lock certain apps to the slower cores, and lock other apps the faster cores. That, would be cool.

 

[Andhaka]

I don't know about the CPU, but I'm going to make a PHONE that's 10". It's friggen BRILLIANT! I'll be a billionaire in no time, take that "Tablets". My device is better, because it's a PHONE.

Ehm.. like the Galxy Note 10? Which is a tablet with a 3G module inside and thus also a phone?

Cheers

 

[CeridianMN]

With two SIM cards on the same number and an additional very small and basic dumb (or small and cheap smart-) phone this would be workable. Have the small phone in your pocket for phone calls and maybe texts, get the phablet out of the bag or backpack for convenient net access. Well, of course you could also do this with a decent not too large smartphone and a Nexus 7.

How about the very small and basic phone doesn't have a SIM at all but connects to the phablet via bluetooth? Upconvert the simple bluetooth headset to instead be a handset. It would be sized about the same as a startac or v-60. (The last two motorola phones I had that I really liked.) Bring back TCS-BIN and the telephony profile in a new implementation before it gets obsoleted. I've heard a pundit or two mentioning that the next big thing for Apple to do is pair a 3G iPad mini with a new iPod nano/watch type device which really goes hand-in hand with this.

The gist of my thought is, why run with 2 SIMs when 1 will do?

In fact, who wants to go in on a patent with me.

Something about controlling and using the phone functions of a device from a separate device via radio frequency or other connection methods. To prevent prior art issues with bluetooth headsets we'd have to, wait, what am I saying, there's really no such thing as prior art these days so we'd probably be fine. Just in case we could identify some kind of more complex input system, but I doubt it would be necessary.

 

[Banquo]

Every smartphone maker apart from Apple is obsessed with the bigger is better philosophy, mainly I assume because they can put pricier and higher end components as well as compare better on the spec sheet. Personally I much rather have the 3.5" size and form factor of the original iPhone, but other than the iPhone 5 there is literally no choice under 4.7" if you want a high-end phone.

I always thought the same thing and then I bought a Note 2. Now I can't imagine EVER going back to a "small" screen phone. Pricier components? Don't know, but unlocked is about the same price as an unlocked iPhone.

Same here, it replaced my iPhone 4S and it`s size was one of the main features that made me give the iPhone 5 a pass. My old phone feels like a toy in comparison. Apple`s incremental changes to the iPhone and iOS are getting pretty stale and are leading to the loss of former users like myself.

 

[phoenix_rizzen]

I'm confused why it's called Octo Core if big.little only allows 4 cores to be active at once?

Isn't that the case? It's a quad core with 4 high power and 4 low power cores and one is active at a time?

Depends. If it's using "normal" big.LITTLE, then yes, only 1 cluster of CPUs is active at a time (either the A15s or the A7s), and only 4 CPUs appear to the OS.

There's work being done in the Linux kernel/scheduler to add a little more granularity to big.LITTLE, though. Meaning, instead of all threads running on only the A15 cluster or the A7 cluster, they break it up into 4 2-CPU clusters (1 A15 and 1 A7). Within each cluster, only 1 CPU is active at a time, either the A15 or the A7. But the scheduler can determine which CPU of each pair to run threads on:
* 4x A15
* 3x A15 and 1x A7
* 2x A15 and 2x A7
* 1x A15 and 3x A7
* 4x A7

There's also a variation called big.LITTLE MP that makes all 8 CPU cores available to the OS, and it's up to the OS to determine how to schedule tasks across all 8 CPU cores.

All of Samsung's press releases only mention "big.LITTLE", there's no mention of "big.LITTLE MP". IMO, this is just marketing fluff to make it seem like they have the biggest CPU around. I highly doubt the OS will show more than 4 cores.

 

[Calavaro]

The gist of my thought is, why run with 2 SIMs when 1 will do?

The point is that you can have 1 SIM in there that has a low fee for phone calls but high fees for data and another SIM in there with low data fees and high call fees. So use 1 SIM for calls, and 1 for data.

Or one number for business and one personal number, without having to carry 2 devices.
Or SIM's from different providers and use the one with best signal in the current area.
Or have 1 SIM in there for all your family and friends and another for the bar hookups.
So much opens up when you go dual.

 

[jasonvalhalla]

I used to be sceptical of smartphone size, but I've come to realize that I spend about 30 minutes a month actually making calls and about 30 minutes a day surfing, texting, maling and whatsapping. Once that hit me, I saw how only the Note II makes sense.
Though I have to say that the Note 1, being a lot wider, would probably be a little too much. I really hope that either the Note 3 will not be bigger than the 1 or somebody else steps up with a 5.5 FullHD monster.
Oh and they should start making 5 icon rows available out of the box, without the need for a different launcher. Icons are big enough on 3.5" devices, there is really no need to scale them up - I want more of them per screen.

I have recently re-activated my 8 year old dumbphone. As nice as a smartphone is, when you carry a 5.5" monster in your pocket, that big ass screen is just waiting to be cracked. So when I'm at a club or concert, when I'm biking or when I'm at the beach (theft alert), I prefer my -by now worthless- dumbphone and enjoy the bonus of two weeks stand-by (with a modern battery upgrade).

 

[g0m3r619]

An electronics company that does everything under the sun, including manufacturing CPUs to only support its mobile division .... hello MOTO.

Does android even efficiently support big little? Apple has already shown, its not the general purpose processor that gives you silky transitions, its the GPU.

Android isn't the only Phone OS out there... You are aware of this right? I wouldn't be surprised to find this new phone supports W8.

http://www.samsung.com/global/ativ/ativ_s.html

 

[name99]

With two SIM cards on the same number and an additional very small and basic dumb (or small and cheap smart-) phone this would be workable. Have the small phone in your pocket for phone calls and maybe texts, get the phablet out of the bag or backpack for convenient net access. Well, of course you could also do this with a decent not too large smartphone and a Nexus 7.

Hmm, I was very sceptical about huge smartphones and now I think I was wrong. Smartphones have become such an integral part of people's lifes that the burden of a huge phone seems to be bearable. But this also means people have become very unwilling to even leave their homes without their phone and *always* carrying such a monster seems to be a tiny bit too much, I think. Although there surely are people who never go anyway without a bag anyway.

In other words the ideal strategy is to own
- a REASONABLE sized phone AND
- a tablet whose size matches your needs (so 10" or 7.8") AND
- to have the two work smoothly together.

Gee, who out there could possibly have a strategy like that?

 

[name99]

I'm confused why it's called Octo Core if big.little only allows 4 cores to be active at once?

Isn't that the case? It's a quad core with 4 high power and 4 low power cores and one is active at a time?

Otherwise you can call an Optimus GPU setup dual-GPU, no?

big.LITTLE is indeed spec'd capable of using all 8 cores at once, if needed. Although AFAIK it is not a standard, so Samsung could have gone either way on that. I'm hoping they have gone that route, otherwise it is a very dirty marketing ploy they have used calling it "octo-core".

Let's face it, the distinction is irrelevant. I'd like to see what software today and over the next year is, under realistic and useful conditions, capable of using four of those cores.

 

[tuxRoller]

I seriously doubt this will happen, but if a big.LITTLE setup spends most of its time in the A7 cores then you shouldn't notice much of a power draw difference UNLESS you are stressing the system (benchmarking or playing games at high settings).
If you're stressing the system you might very well be looking at power draws of at least 8W (for the A15) and 2W (complete guess for the A7), and probably a bit higher, and that is only the SoC component. Even with the giant battery of the ipad, that would drain the system in less that 5 hours with the screen off (a scenario that is a bit unlikely). With the screen on, and a xhdpi 10 inch device you're probably looking at around 14W or so. So, now the battery drains in around 3 hours.
Also, the MP configuration is going to require pretty significant changes to the schedulers, so, that may not be available when this is first launched.

 

[tuxRoller]

I don't see how using all 8 cores simultaneously on a big.LITTLE arch makes much sense - the 4 slower cores are so weak performance wise that it will hardly matter.

It's called aSMP and not all threads are created equal