Behind every great smartphone is an incredible processor. When Samsung launched the Galaxy S5, it remained mysteriously quiet about which processor would power its new flagship. Now it seems that the two variants of the S5 will have either the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 or Samsung Exynos 5422 octa-core processor onboard.
In a specification infographic showing the Galaxy S family device specifications, Samsung revealed that the Galaxy S5 will come with either a 2.5 GHz processor or a 2.1 GHz chip. Given the clock speeds of the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 801, it is believed that the 2.5 GHz chipset will be the new powerhouse behind one variant of the Galaxy S5. The other version of the S5 will feature a 2.1 GHz processor, which is widely thought to be the brand-new Samsung Exynos 5422 octa-core chip. Samsung introduced the Exynos 5422 alongside several other processors on Wednesday, but did not confirm its presence on the S5.
There are conflicting reports about which processors will be used on the new S5 smartphone, but given the recent release of the 801 and the 5422, it makes logical sense for Samsung to incorporate these two brand-new processors into its flagship device.
The Snapdragon 801 is just a hair faster than the current Snapdragon 800 processor, but it also features support for 2K displays, LTE baseband, Wi-Fi 802.11ac and speedy digital image processing built in. All of these features would be ideal for the S5, but the fast digital image processing technology would be the most useful on the S5. The 2K display support, while nice, doesn't do anything for the S5, which stubbornly maintained the Full HD resolution of the previous Galaxy S smartphone.
Meanwhile, the Samsung Exynos 5422 octa-core processor offers four Cortex-A15 cores that run as fast as 2.1 GHz and four additional Cortex-A7 cores that reach speeds of 1.5 GHz. The Exynos 5422 supports 2K displays, too; 4K video playback and improved battery life. Samsung says it is 10 percent more efficient than the other Exynos 5 octa-core processors and performs 34 percent better. All of these features, especially the 4K video playback function, are key to making the most out of the Galaxy S5's capabilities.
In addition to the Exynos processor that is expected to show up on some versions of the S5, Samsung also announced the hexa-core Exynos 5260 processor, which many believe will appear on some versions of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo.
