Just yesterday Samsung had teased that they would be making some Exynos-related announcements. One of the rumors had suggested that Samsung would finally be bringing LTE connectivity to their Exynos lineup, and sure enough they did with the Samsung ModAP. Previously Samsung had to rely on Qualcomm’s offerings to enable LTE on their phones, but now with the Exynos ModAP, it looks like Samsung’s reliance on Qualcomm could be lessened.
Now unlike some of Samsung’s Exynos 5 chipsets which were of the octa-core variety (using the big.LITTLE architecture), the Exynos ModAP will be of the quad-core variety. While some users might not be able to notice the difference, on paper it does seem like it would be less powerful.
However this is still a pretty big step forward for Samsung as they are now able to include LTE on their Exynos lineup, which in turn would help Samsung reduce their dependence on Qualcomm for chipsets. As it stands, the first-generation of Exynos ModAP chips will use the LTE Cat 4, versus LTE Cat 6 on Qualcomm’s latest chips.
What this means is that there is still room for Samsung to improve, but like we said, it’s a huge step forward. It is unclear which of Samsung’s future phones will be taking advantage of the new Exynos ModAP chips, so we’ll be keeping our eyes peeled for more info.