Samsung is the leader in the global smartphone market by a massive margin, with quarterly handset shipment volumes that more than double its closest rival. As a matter of fact, the most recent numbers suggest that Samsung’s Q2 2013 smartphone shipments fell between 72.4 and 76 million units, which is more than its four closest competitors combined — including Apple. Samsung is indeed a clear leader in the market, but many have argued that it got there by following Apple and other rivals, taking elements from their hardware and software designs and incorporating them into its own devices. That is clearly the case to some degree, though Samsung is definitely taking its own path now in many areas. Old habits die hard, however, and it looks like Samsung’s next big flagship phone will take a key feature from Apple’s new iPhone 5s and bring it over to Samsung’s camp.
According to a new report from South Korean news site Digital Daily, Samsung’s Galaxy S5 will be powered by a brand new mobile processor fresh out of the company’s labs. Like the A7 chipset Apple designed for its flagship iPhone 5s handset, Samsung’s new “Exynos 6” silicon will feature 64-bit architecture. Coincidentally, Apple’s 64-bit chip is manufactured by Samsung.
The report claims that Samsung’s chipset will utilize a 14-nanometer process rather than the 28-nanometer process Apple’s A7 SoC and other mobile chips use. It will also apparently implement ARM big.LITTLE like Samsung’s current Exynos 5 5420 chips, and it will combine low-power Cortex-A53 cores and more powerful Cortex-A57 cores. This will seemingly allow Samsung’s new chipset to consume a minimal amount of power until it’s called on for some heavy-duty processing.
Samsung mobile boss JK Shin confirmed recently that future Samsung phones will feature 64-bit processors, and it looks like the Galaxy S5 may be among the first to receive the bit bump he promised. The new flagship phone’s housing is also rumored to be getting an upgrade from plastic to metal, and it may debut as soon as January next year.
