Samsung gets first dibs on Snapdragon 835 production, others wait until April

Most smartphone manufacturers won't be able to get their hands on Qualcomm's bleeding-edge Snapdragon 835 SoC until April. Why? According to sources of Forbes and The Verge, Samsung has secured the majority of the 835s for their own usage in the upcoming Galaxy S8. As a result, other manufacturers will have to either launch their competing flagships after the S8, or make-do with older, less sought-after SoCs, such as the 821. Large-scale production will not begin until the S8 has already launched, say the sources.

The Snapdragon 835 is being made by Qualcomm, but are manufactured by Samsung, as the chips are using Samsung's 10nm FinFET process. The move from a 14 to 10nm process will increase performance and battery life. The Snapdragon 835 is also the first ARM cpu to feature x86 emulation as introduced by Qualcomm late in last December, causing it to be in high demand by vendors and consumers. The hording of the chips that Samsung itself is making has been deemed "anti-competitive" by some.

The S8 is rumored to launch on April 14th in South Korea.