Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Did Google ruin Samsung’s Galaxy S25 MediaTek surprise?

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Over the past few months, rumors have suggested that Samsung could use a MediaTek chip in some of the Galaxy S25 models. While we may have laughed these rumors off a few months back, Samsung’s decision to replace Snapdragon with MediaTek on its latest flagship tablet lineup gave us pause.Summarize in one-click with Galaxy AI

And it looks like Google may have poured even more fuel to the fire. On Monday, October 8, a blog post on the Google DeepMind website talking about AlphaChip, an AI-based technology to help accelerate and optimize chip design, mentioned how MediaTek used AlphaChip to “accelerate development of their most advanced chips — like the Dimensity Flagship 5G used in Samsung mobiles phones — while improving power, performance and chip area.

An innocent error, or an accidental reveal of Samsung’s master plan?

That led to some folks speculating that Google accidentally revealed Samsung’s plans to use a MediaTek chip on the Galaxy S25 series. Google, however, told Android Authority that the original text was an error, and it’s certainly possible it mistakenly said phones instead of tablets and was just referring to the Galaxy Tab S10+ and Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra.

But Google’s decision to scrub the text from the blog post suggests this was no mere typo. If it was a typo, Google could have simply changed the word phones to tablets to lay the matter to rest. Instead, Google removed not just the part mentioning Samsung phones but also all references to specific devices.

What about MediaTek? Well, it declined to comment when approached by Android Authority. That may look suspicious, but chipmakers, including Samsung, often refuse to reveal their clients. They only do so once a client/manufacturer is ready to announce a device that uses their chip, so Google may not have had an ulterior motive.

Still, where there’s smoke, there’s fire. It can’t be a coincidence that this error happened at a time when rumors have been hinting at the possibility of MediaTek processors powering the Galaxy S25 series, or at least the base and Plus model (the Ultra model is expected to exclusively use a Snapdragon processor, just like the Galaxy S24 Ultra).

Some of us here at SamMobile would even welcome it. MediaTek could be an answer to the Snapdragon vs Exynos debate that plagues the newscycle before and after every new flagship Galaxy smartphone’s announcement. Unfortunately, the Galaxy S25 lineup is at least three months away, so we will have to wait a while to find out what Samsung’s plans are.

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