An insider revealed on Weibo that next year’s Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus will launch with an Exynos 9810 that will have CDMA network support. He however didn’t mention if there will no longer be Snapdragon variants of the Galaxy S Series anymore.
When Samsung launches a new flagship, it usually comes in two versions: an Exynos powered variant and a Snapdragon variant. One of the major reasons for having a Qualcomm variant is because a large part of the CDMA technology used by cellular networks such as Sprint and Verizon is owned by Qualcomm.
If there will be no more Snapdragon variants of the Galaxy S series, then it means they both have reached an agreement in relation to CDMA patents issue. It may also mean Samsung will be able to sell its chips to third party OEMs.
Earlier this year, Taiwan’s fair Trade Commission accused Qualcomm of abusing the “Standard Essential Patent” by preventing Samsung from selling its chipsets and modems to other smartphone companies. Irrespective of the licensing issue between them, Samsung still made the Snapdragon 835 chip for Qualcomm. However, Qualcomm is moving to TSMC for the production of the Snapdragon 845.
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Apart from the reveal of the flagship Exynos chip, he also mentions that the Galaxy Note 8 will launch with a Snapdragon 836. The new chip will offer an improvement in performance over the Snapdragon 835.
