Samsung allegedly hoards S835 chips for the Galaxy S8, leaving nothing for LG

Samsung is prepping for the Galaxy S8 launch and is buying up every Snapdragon 835 chip in sight. Which causes headaches for other companies as there aren’t enough units left and won’t be until the S8 launches, claim anonymous industry insiders.

It seems even LG didn’t have enough pull to secure S835 chipsets for the upcoming LG G6, which will launch ahead of the S8 (and so will the HTC U Ultra, powered by S821). This won’t be the first time LG opts for a chip lower on the totem pole, though with the LG G4 it was about the thermal issues of the top chip rather than lack of availability.

Now, Samsung has a bit of an advantage - the S835 is fabbed by Samsung at its new 10nm FinFET process. This would make it more power efficient than the S820/S821. Since Qualcomm has not announced any alternatives in the 83x generation, the LG G6 will launch with an S821 chipset (unless it heavily delays the flagship).

Hoarding this many Snapdragon 835 chipsets may mean that the Galaxy S8 will not use an Exynos for the international version. That or the yield of the 10nm process is still too low.

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