Samsung has put the Android fans into a furor again by releasing the new Galaxy S4 with the latest specifications into its mobile and as with the S3, Samsung has decided to release two versions of the phone... A quad core variant (GT-I9505) with the Snapdragon 600 as the SoC and an octa (8 core) variant (GT-I9500) with its own Exynos 5 Octa as the SoC on the phone.
Why does Samsung continue to produce two versions is still a mystery but as expected the International version of the phone will come with the Exynos 5 Octa and as expected it beats the quad core variant pretty easily. While it not matter much that the octa core can open an app milliseconds faster, it still matters to the buyers because if they are paying good money for a high-end smartphone, they deserve to know why one is better than the other. Lets take a look at how the S4 Octa core beats its Quad core brother.
So far these are the major differences we have noticed between the two variants of the phones. Do you know of any more key difference? Let us know in the comments.
Why does Samsung continue to produce two versions is still a mystery but as expected the International version of the phone will come with the Exynos 5 Octa and as expected it beats the quad core variant pretty easily. While it not matter much that the octa core can open an app milliseconds faster, it still matters to the buyers because if they are paying good money for a high-end smartphone, they deserve to know why one is better than the other. Lets take a look at how the S4 Octa core beats its Quad core brother.
Faster CPU (Exynos5 1.6 GHz vs Snapdragon 600 1.9GHz)
What is important in this aspect is to first understand the way the Octa works is that it uses the 1.2 GHz little quad core to do simpler tasks while it uses a 1.6 GHz big core to perform complex tasks which enables the processor to carry out tasks in parallel hence enhancing the performance of the Exynos over the Snapdragon 600 even though the latter is clocked at a higher processor speed and while there is an advantage it isnt nearly as much as what the end user expects it to be. Speaking in real life terms, the S4 Octa would launch an app maybe milliseconds faster than the S4 Quad.
Faster GPU (Power VR SXG 544 vs Adreno 320)
The quad-core version of the phone will contain the highly popular Adreno 320 while for its own Exynos 5 Octa Samsung has decided to ditch ARM and go with Imagination Technologies PowerVR chip. What is interesting to notice is that the Power VR chip has the same level of API support as the Adreno 320 but one thing in advantage to the PowerVR is that Apple uses its chips in their iPhones and that the GPU is tweaked to run those graphics efficiently. So our guess is maybe Samsung is looking to take advantage of this fact and decided to have a go at the PowerVR chipsBetter Battery Performance
While both the variants contain the same battery in them the key factor that helps the Exynos 5 beat the Quad core variant is the chip-s advanced battery efficiency. Again, this difference might not be much but when it comes to battery, every saved bit is helpful.Better Audio Chip (Wolfson AC vs Snapdragon 600 AC)
The Snapdragon 600 might be a great processor but it has received a lot of flak for its poor quality of audio by the default audio chip present on the SoC. Samsung has rectified this by using Wolfson's AC in their Exynos 5 which is far superior to the previous one.Octa Core version might not offer LTE speeds
This is the biggest let down about the GT-I9500 where the Exynos5 chip is capable of supporting LTE without showing any issues but rumors are floating that the Octa core S4 variant will not have the LTE modem in the phone. This is a major disadvantage in a time when every smartphone is supporting LTE speeds and Samsung which usually leads these spec revolutions will not be supporting this major advancement.So far these are the major differences we have noticed between the two variants of the phones. Do you know of any more key difference? Let us know in the comments.
Samsung has put the Android fans into a furor again by releasing the new Galaxy S4 with the latest specifications into its mobile and as with the S3, Samsung has decided to release two versions of the phone... A quad core variant (GT-I9505) with the Snapdragon 600 as the SoC and an octa (8 core) variant (GT-I9500) with its own Exynos 5 Octa as the SoC on the phone.
Why does Samsung continue to produce two versions is still a mystery but as expected the International version of the phone will come with the Exynos 5 Octa and as expected it beats the quad core variant pretty easily. While it not matter much that the octa core can open an app milliseconds faster, it still matters to the buyers because if they are paying good money for a high-end smartphone, they deserve to know why one is better than the other. Lets take a look at how the S4 Octa core beats its Quad core brother.
So far these are the major differences we have noticed between the two variants of the phones. Do you know of any more key difference? Let us know in the comments.
Why does Samsung continue to produce two versions is still a mystery but as expected the International version of the phone will come with the Exynos 5 Octa and as expected it beats the quad core variant pretty easily. While it not matter much that the octa core can open an app milliseconds faster, it still matters to the buyers because if they are paying good money for a high-end smartphone, they deserve to know why one is better than the other. Lets take a look at how the S4 Octa core beats its Quad core brother.
Faster CPU (Exynos5 1.6 GHz vs Snapdragon 600 1.9GHz)
What is important in this aspect is to first understand the way the Octa works is that it uses the 1.2 GHz little quad core to do simpler tasks while it uses a 1.6 GHz big core to perform complex tasks which enables the processor to carry out tasks in parallel hence enhancing the performance of the Exynos over the Snapdragon 600 even though the latter is clocked at a higher processor speed and while there is an advantage it isnt nearly as much as what the end user expects it to be. Speaking in real life terms, the S4 Octa would launch an app maybe milliseconds faster than the S4 Quad.Faster GPU (Power VR SXG 544 vs Adreno 320)
The quad-core version of the phone will contain the highly popular Adreno 320 while for its own Exynos 5 Octa Samsung has decided to ditch ARM and go with Imagination Technologies PowerVR chip. What is interesting to notice is that the Power VR chip has the same level of API support as the Adreno 320 but one thing in advantage to the PowerVR is that Apple uses its chips in their iPhones and that the GPU is tweaked to run those graphics efficiently. So our guess is maybe Samsung is looking to take advantage of this fact and decided to have a go at the PowerVR chipsBetter Battery Performance
While both the variants contain the same battery in them the key factor that helps the Exynos 5 beat the Quad core variant is the chip-s advanced battery efficiency. Again, this difference might not be much but when it comes to battery, every saved bit is helpful.Better Audio Chip (Wolfson AC vs Snapdragon 600 AC)
The Snapdragon 600 might be a great processor but it has received a lot of flak for its poor quality of audio by the default audio chip present on the SoC. Samsung has rectified this by using Wolfson's AC in their Exynos 5 which is far superior to the previous one.Octa Core version might not offer LTE speeds
This is the biggest let down about the GT-I9500 where the Exynos5 chip is capable of supporting LTE without showing any issues but rumors are floating that the Octa core S4 variant will not have the LTE modem in the phone. This is a major disadvantage in a time when every smartphone is supporting LTE speeds and Samsung which usually leads these spec revolutions will not be supporting this major advancement.So far these are the major differences we have noticed between the two variants of the phones. Do you know of any more key difference? Let us know in the comments.
