Samsung's Galaxy S7 may feature overclocked Snapdragon 820 cooled by heatpipes

[Shawn Knight]

There’s a flurry of rumors surrounding Samsung’s next Galaxy flagship, the S7. The latest rumblings have to do with heat – or more specifically, how to handle the potential thermal problem that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 may bring.

For those that haven’t been keeping up, Samsung famously snubbed Qualcomm and its Snapdragon 810 in the Galaxy S6 due to overheating concerns. With the Galaxy S7, we’re hearing that Samsung will rekindle its relationship with Qualcomm and use the Snapdragon 820 in some (regional) models.

Here lately, however, rumors circulating suggest Samsung may be looking for a bit of an insurance policy in the form of a passive cooling system for the phone.

As Android Headlines notes, an alleged Samsung engineer recently posted on Weibo to defend the company. The engineer said that thermal design is an art and that while operating temperature can affect a chip’s performance, having a passive cooling system doesn’t necessarily mean something is wrong with a chip.

Instead, the engineer suggests that because the chip can stay cooler, the device may have a bit more performance. If you’ve been keeping pace with rumors, you know that this jives perfectly with rumblings that Samsung may use an overclocked version of the Snapdragon 820 in the Galaxy S7.

Other rumors suggest Samsung may come in at a cheaper price point and even bring back the beloved microSD card slot.

It’s worth reiterating that all of this is hearsay at the moment and we won’t know anything for certain until early next year at the soonest.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/63055-samsung-galaxy-s7-may-feature-overclocked-snapdragon-820.html

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

If heat is a concern just rig it up to a custom water loop which you can then place in a backpack. Problem solved. XD

 

[Adhmuz]

If they stick with the non removable battery wouldn't it be possible to turn the back of the phone into some form of aluminum heatsink allowing for better heat dissipation, rib it slightly or texture it with knurling for increased surface area which could double as a high end finish.

As far as I can tell however every phone with a quad core CPU has to throttle itself back at some point in time or another to prevent overheating, my phone does this a lot when watching video with high brightness and my suspicion is the battery is getting hot and transferring it's heat to the core components forcing the CPU to throttle, probably a pretty common issue. The heat from the battery is unavoidable, so the next step is to transfer the heat away from the CPU more effectively, hence the heat pipe theory. Then by adding cooling you have room to overclock the CPU in turn. It's all linked together making these rumors a little more credible if you think about it.

Should be interesting to see what Samsung has in store for us in the coming months.

 

[veLa]

I flat out don't care about having an overclocked phone.

 

[Julio Franco]

This is still a rumor but I wonder, right now, do we need more performance out of smartphones? Or should priority be given to battery life, efficiency, build quality, convenience (water proofing, security, software)?

 

[Linkinworm]

This is still a rumor but I wonder, right now, do we need more performance out of smartphones? Or should priority be given to battery life, efficiency, build quality, convenience (water proofing, security, software)?

I think the general consumer (mostly those who are clueless beyond a big poster saying NEW FASTER PHONE) would not buy a new phone purely because the battery life is longer and just get a better battery for their current phone instead, and if apple brings out a new phone touting "2x faster" or what ever and samsung is just long, battery life. people would think the iphone is superior in every way still, even if the battery life was half that of the samsung.

 

[BMfan]

This is still a rumor but I wonder, right now, do we need more performance out of smartphones? Or should priority be given to battery life, efficiency, build quality, convenience (water proofing, security, software)?

That is why I'm replacing my S4 i9505 with a Sony Z3.
With my S4 I can get about 2 days sometimes even 3 days,I am hoping with the Z3 a week.

 

[RustyTech]

Other rumors suggest Samsung may come in at a cheaper price point and even bring back the beloved microSD card slot.

Very nice! However, the removable battery is also beloved.
I love new tech and will probably upgrade often, but don't force obsolescence on me. If my battery stops holding a charge, I just want to replace it and maybe give to a friend...or just keep it as back-up.

Hey Tchspot...you wouldn't happen to have sales figures on the Note 5?? ...and how that compares to the Note 4??????

 

[p51d007]

Unless you are into games, all this quad core this and overclock that is just wasted on the apps of today.
Heck, I get by very easy on a SD400! Fast, sips battery, no lag. Runs everything I run perfectly.
Pandora, web, text, mp3's, camera, youtube...that constitutes probably 3/4 of the users out there.
Buying these overpriced, over processored devices just drains your battery and wallet.

 

[Lionvibez]

I flat out don't care about having an overclocked phone.

+1000

like seriously where are the reports on extended battery life no one cares about overclocking their cell phone.


Its like having my desktop overclocked pushing it to the limit while its on a UPS ..."Yeah baby" in austin powers voice!

This is still a rumor but I wonder, right now, do we need more performance out of smartphones? Or should priority be given to battery life, efficiency, build quality, convenience (water proofing, security, software)?

I think the general consumer (mostly those who are clueless beyond a big poster saying NEW FASTER PHONE) would not buy a new phone purely because the battery life is longer and just get a better battery for their current phone instead, and if apple brings out a new phone touting "2x faster" or what ever and samsung is just long, battery life. people would think the iphone is superior in every way still, even if the battery life was half that of the samsung.

Yup general public are tech illiterate yet they drive what the sells.

lol jobs said it best

“It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them.”
— Steve Jobs

and another good one

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
–Henry Ford

It kills me we the technically minded people have to suffer because of it.

 

[Nobina]

Might as well put i7 inside since nothing can run Android smoothly.

 

[Emexrulsier]

If they would ramp up development, and production into Solid State Fans (fans with no moving parts) this may resolved some issues with phone cooling.