When Samsung’s Galaxy S6 debuted with their home-brewed Exynos processor, the industry was taken aback. Â Up to that point, it was usual that Samsung pack their flagship with the latest Snapdragon that Qualcomm has to offer at the time. Â And then we began to see Exynos show up on other phones. Â It would seem that a battle was brewing.
But the word we just got would paint a prettier picture between the two giants.  Allegedly, the next Snapdragon, 820, will be produced using Samsung’s manufacturing resources.  We have heard this kind of tale before, but reinforcement of a rumor always warms our hearts.
According to a Chinese report via Mobile-dad, the Snapdragon 820 will be manufactured on Samsung’s 14nm process, use a 64-bit Kryo architecture, and run at 3.0 GHz.  It is also noted that upcoming phones from Sony, HTC, and Xiaomi will be the first to pack the chip.
To compare, the Snapdragon 810 was built on a 20nm process. Â But plagued with overheating issues, it may be that Qualcomm is desperate to get the chip cooler by reducing the die size. Â With that said, a frequency of 3.0 GHz on the successor seems pretty ballsy in hindsight.
Samsung is no more “collaborating on the Snapdragon 820” with Qualcomm, than it’s “collaborating on the A9 with Apple”.
Qualcomm is simply a customer of its foundry.
I hope the Snapdragon 820 will provide best performance for mobile devices and not so hot with temperature issues in the Snapdragon 810.