Samsung Galaxy S5 Release Date Nears: Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 Chipset Confirmed; Variant With Exynos Chipset Also Expected [INFOGRAPHIC]

The Samsung Galaxy S5 was announced Monday at Samsung’s Unpacked event at the World Mobile congress, and information about the new device continues to trickle in.

Initial news indicated that the Samsung Galax S5 would be powered by a 2.5GHz quad-core application processor; which has now been confirmed by Qualcomm as the Snapdragon 801 chipset. The updated 800 series chipset includes a Krait 400 CPU and Adreno 33 GPU, but has gotten a slight power boost from the original 2.3GHz Qualcomm 800. In addition, the chipset supports "higher quality imaging with support for larger, faster camera sensors and improved image post-processing, immersive mobile graphics and gaming," Qualcomm details. The Snapdragon 801 also supports higher speed SD card memory and LTE-Advanced networks.

For some time reports suggested that the Samsung Galaxy S5 might feature an over-clocked Snapdragon 800 processor or even the Snapdragon 805 processor, dubbed the “Ultra HD processor” for its ability to power devices with 4K (3840 × 2160) UHD displays. Notably, the Galaxy S5 includes much more subdued specs than where expected. Still, benchmarks have shown that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 powered Galaxy S5 does have a performance boost of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 powered Galaxy Note 3, albeit slight.

Samsung has also mentioned plans to release a Galaxy S5 variant featuring a 2.1GHz octa-core Exynos chipset. The Korean manufacturer is well known for releasing LTE and 3G versions of its flagship devices with the former featuring a Qualcomm processor and the latter featuring an Exynos processor. Many have expected to see similar models released for the Galaxy S5.

Soon after the Galaxy S5 announcement on Monday, Samsung shared an info-graphic detailing side-by-side specs of the Samsung Galaxy S line, which indicated two processors for the S5: a 2.5GHz Quad core (Snapdragon 801) and a 2.1GHz Octa-core. Later the info-graphic was updated to include only the Snapdragon 801 chipset. It is not known why the update was made; however, we suspect Samsung intended to only compare Galaxy S models, which are the most similar – in that all these models feature Qualcomm chipsets.

Samsung has not yet announced any new processors; however, recent reports suggest that the manufacturer may have a new chipset called the “Exynos Infinity” in the works. A teaser image was shared on Twitter days prior to the Samsung Galaxy S5 unveiling, but accompanying Twitter post has since been deleted. Many wonder if the Exynos Infinity is the long-rumored about 64-bit Samsung CPU. If so, it may not be a processor for Galaxy S5 considering that Samsung usually selects chipsets of complementary power ability to power the LTE and 3G variants of its flagships devices. A 64-bit chipset would likely be way too powerful to complement the Snapdragon 801. Other rumored about Samsung processors include the Exynos 5422 and the Exynos 5430, both of which were proposed for the Samsung Galaxy S5 prior to its launch.

What do you think of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor in the Samsung Galaxy S5? Let us know in the comments below.

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