LG is rumored to be unveiling the successor of the LG G5 smartphone — the LG G6 — in February, followed by a March 10 release in its home country South Korea.
The LG G6 is speculated to house the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, but things may not be looking that promising for the company, as Samsung has reportedly rained on its parade.
According to a new report from Forbes, the LG G6 will house the older Snapdragon 821 chipset, as Samsung has called dibs on the Snapdragon 835 processor.
Samsung has allegedly claimed the entire supply of the Snapdragon 835 chipset, leaving LG and other OEMs' with older CPUs at their disposal.
Industry insiders have confirmed to the publication that "the Snapdragon 835 won't be available in large quantities until after the Galaxy S8 launches."
This situation leaves little option for LG. The company can either back off from rolling out its supposed Snapdragon 835-powered handsets or simply include the Snapdragon 821 and launch the LG G6 without any delay.
The news does not come as a surprise, as reports suggest that Samsung is assisting Qualcomm to manufacture the Snapdragon 835 chips. The Snapdragon 835 chips shall be available in sufficient quantities for others to use only after the release of Galaxy S8.
Not Snapdragon 835 But Snapdragon 821 Instead
Since Samsung is co-manufacturing the Snapdragon 835 chipsets along with Qualcomm, it is but natural for the company to stake claims first and book the entire stock for itself, giving major disadvantage to its competitors.
Since the Snapdragon processor is based on Samsung's manufacturing process of 10 nm, it narrows down the possibility of manufacturing the chip through any other supplier or chipmaker to close the demand and supply gap.
Therefore, in the absence of Snapdragon 835 chipsets, LG G6 will apparently be using the Snapdragon 821 chipset to power the LG G6. This is not the first time LG will be possibly be opting for an alternate CPU than the one planned. For its LG G4, the company opted for the Snapdragon 808 instead of Snapdragon 810 due to overheating issues with the latter.
Other than the chipset, the LG G6 could possibly come with a 5.7-inch quad HD display with a 4K resolution and 4 GB of RAM. The smartphone is expected to have LG Pay support along with Always-On functionality and wireless charging.
Photo: Kārlis Dambrāns I Flickr
