@Zaap: I did not expect such a passionate rebuke to my mild hope of seeing more advanced SOC on Android front. The thing is that the SOC performance on Android side has been advancing in snail's pace, especially if you discount the benefits reaped by the manufacturing node changes. A73 is not big of a performance leap from A57, and the latter is now more than 2 years old. Samsung has been working on its custom ARM SOCs, and I firmly believe that it has the will and capacity to produce a brand-spanking new SOC that can leap ahead of the generic ARM cores.
BTW I do not care for the iPhones. (mostly due to iOS and iTunes) The last iPhone I had and liked was the iPhone 4S, and I have been an Android fanboy since the Nexus 4. The S8 I've got recently is the best smartphone I have had, bar none. It is an engineering marvel that is almost hard to believe, considering what the Galaxy S3/S4 were merely 3~4 years ago.
But I do not agree with your assertion that "most people do not give a flying rat about "fast" and "smooth." Just look at how smoother Touchwiz on the S8 is compared to that on the Galaxys of yore. Samsung has made a tremendous stride towards ironing out Touchwiz, and it shows. As a matter of fact many of Samsung's home-grown apps operate smoother than Google's: Samsung Internet Browser is faster/smoother than Chrome, Galaxy Appstore loads faster and scrolls smoother than Play Store, and Samsung Health is more performant than Google Fit, etc. And compared to Samsung's own past endeavors? (e.g. things Samsung used to preinstall on Galaxy S3/S4) It is a night and day difference. Gone are the ugly, incoherent, and laggy mess, and now Samsung's apps are in some ways even better than Google's, both aesthetically and performance-wise.
All of this is a proof that users care smooth and coherent user experience and Samsung is keenly aware of that fact. And I of course appreciate that. But back on the original topic of the SOC, Apple's A11 is looming large and if the A10X on the new iPad Pro is a sign of things to come, it is going to bring yet another huge jump in performance. To add insult to injury, A11 is not even going to be that much bigger than the S835. Since the A10X (a hexa-core part) is 96.4 mm², the A11 (presumably a quad) should be smaller than that. The S835 is 72.3 mm² with LTE modem integrated.The size difference is no longer as big as it used to be.
But I digress. To make it short, I want to see a new performant SOC other than stock ARM cores from Samsung, Qualcomm, Kirin, or whoever. I mean, really the only flagship-grade SOC on Android that was not stock ARM cores was Krait, and that seems like a distant past now. Apple threw monkey wrench with its first 64-bit ARM SOC, which might have screwed whatever roadmaps they had been working with, but many years have passed since then and I think it is high time something new came along.
BTW I do not care for the iPhones. (mostly due to iOS and iTunes) The last iPhone I had and liked was the iPhone 4S, and I have been an Android fanboy since the Nexus 4. The S8 I've got recently is the best smartphone I have had, bar none. It is an engineering marvel that is almost hard to believe, considering what the Galaxy S3/S4 were merely 3~4 years ago.
But I do not agree with your assertion that "most people do not give a flying rat about "fast" and "smooth." Just look at how smoother Touchwiz on the S8 is compared to that on the Galaxys of yore. Samsung has made a tremendous stride towards ironing out Touchwiz, and it shows. As a matter of fact many of Samsung's home-grown apps operate smoother than Google's: Samsung Internet Browser is faster/smoother than Chrome, Galaxy Appstore loads faster and scrolls smoother than Play Store, and Samsung Health is more performant than Google Fit, etc. And compared to Samsung's own past endeavors? (e.g. things Samsung used to preinstall on Galaxy S3/S4) It is a night and day difference. Gone are the ugly, incoherent, and laggy mess, and now Samsung's apps are in some ways even better than Google's, both aesthetically and performance-wise.
All of this is a proof that users care smooth and coherent user experience and Samsung is keenly aware of that fact. And I of course appreciate that. But back on the original topic of the SOC, Apple's A11 is looming large and if the A10X on the new iPad Pro is a sign of things to come, it is going to bring yet another huge jump in performance. To add insult to injury, A11 is not even going to be that much bigger than the S835. Since the A10X (a hexa-core part) is 96.4 mm², the A11 (presumably a quad) should be smaller than that. The S835 is 72.3 mm² with LTE modem integrated.The size difference is no longer as big as it used to be.
But I digress. To make it short, I want to see a new performant SOC other than stock ARM cores from Samsung, Qualcomm, Kirin, or whoever. I mean, really the only flagship-grade SOC on Android that was not stock ARM cores was Krait, and that seems like a distant past now. Apple threw monkey wrench with its first 64-bit ARM SOC, which might have screwed whatever roadmaps they had been working with, but many years have passed since then and I think it is high time something new came along.
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