Samsung's Galaxy Note 5 is now said to be released as early as August. In terms of specifications, the device seems to be leaving the Snapdragon chip, but could possibly have the high-density EPOP. This seems to be backed as Qualcomm is expecting slow sales in Q2, and Samsung investing $9 billion to start another chip plant.
Galaxy Note 5 release date
International Business Times, India Edition cited Korean media publication Daum that the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 might be released as early as August. However, this is yet to be confirmed officially. There is also a big possibility that Samsung might announce the device at IFA in Berlin, which is what the company did in their previous Note series.
No Qualcomm Snapdragon chips, but an LTE-Advanced modem
The specifications at the front of the Galaxy Note 5 are speculated to be the same with the Galaxy S6. This was reportedly hinted by Samsung executive Roh Tae-moon, who said that the device will come out with a curved display.
When asking if what processor the Galaxy Note 5 is going to use, latest reports seem to imply that there won't be a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 in it. Qualcomm has recently shown its sales, and it revealed that the company is expecting slow sales in the second half of the year. Qualcomm said in its report that they "are reducing our QCT outlook for fiscal 2015, primarily due to the increased impact of customer share shifts within the premium tier and a decline in our share at a large customer."
This was percieved to be because of Samsung's decision to drop chip orders from Qualcomm. Motley Fool, which said that they owned shares of Qualcomm, stated:
"Given the traditional September launch of the Galaxy Note line, it appears unlikely the Note 5 will feature the Snapdragon 820. If the above analysis is correct, the Snapdragon 820 won't be available in production quantities in time for the Galaxy Note 5 launch. If that's the case, how could Qualcomm get back into the next Galaxy phone? Well, for one thing, The Wall Street Journal reports that Qualcomm has actually won the modem spot in the Galaxy S6 sold on some carriers."
"Perhaps Qualcomm will be able to win the modem spot in the Note 5 across more regions with its recently announced MDM9x45 category 10 LTE-Advanced modem than it did with the Galaxy S6. Winning just the modem spot without the applications processor is likely to yield lower revenue and gross margin dollars per unit, but it's certainly better than nothing."
Instead of the Snapdragon 820, the Galaxy Note 5 is said to have a high-density EPOP memory that combines 3 GB LLPDR3 DRA, 32 GB eMMC, and a controller.
Samsung invests $9 billion for chip plant
NDTV cited MoneyToday that Samsung is set to invest another 10 trillion won ($9.2 billion) to add a new chip plant in South Korea. This is a 64% increase over the announced investment plan. Though it was not mentioned when the investment would begin, it is said that the plant would start its production in 2017. The plant is going to manufacture DRAM memory chips, and could also make mobile chips. Samsung reportedly said that the company was seeking for a sustainable memory chip growth, implying that they will not start a price war.
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