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The new SoC sounds like it's going to be amazing [1]. I don't think Qualcomm or Samsung are going to be able to compete for years.

[1] https://twitter.com/stroughtonsmith/status/90692329088688537...

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They haven't been able to compete since the A6... it's hard for them though because Apple makes the chip very large while Samsung and Qualcomm don't wish to take that risk

big.LITTLE has been a thing for years, and at least Qualcomm has had 4+4 chips out for about as long.

Besides, performance doesn't matter if it's locked into a walled garden.

How do you figure that?

Eh? Android, led by Samsung, is way way ahead of Apple. Most non technical people don't even know what a CPU is and aren't about to spend $1000 on a new phone.

That's not to say this chip doesn't sound impressive. But it's not going to change market shares.

When it comes to performance Apple has been leading for a couple of years. The only android phones that have been able to be at the top of the line iPhone do it because they had twice as many cores. In any single core benchmark Apple seems to wipe the floor with competitors.

And there's a battery price to be paid by winning that way.

So if Apple doubles the number of power course they have where does that leave Android phones for competing on the ultra high-end?

(Before anyone says "Android phones are fast enough"/"It doesn't matter" I totally agree. To the normal user this isn't a real problem, it's just fun tech geekery)

Anyone who says "Android phones are fast enough"/"It doesn't matter" is absolutely fooling themselves, and may as well be saying "640k is enough for anybody". Mock them accordingly.

Honestly I've never used an android phone for more than five minutes because I've never owned one.

But that's my impression from people I've talked to who use flagship devices. It wouldn't surprise me if the hundred dollar ones feel slow, but that's to be expected.

I mean I love my iPhone getting faster every time I buy a new one but generally my old one feels fine. It's not like I'm suffering from a slow phone.

In day to day usage, vanilla Android on entry level hardware has felt faster than iOS on subsequent generation premium hardware for years now. iPhones have always beaten Android phones on certain graphics benchmarks, but for general business usage, they remain too[1] laggy[2]. I and several others I know who have switched to vanilla Android from iPhones have had the same experience.

[1] https://youtu.be/hPhkPXVxISY

[2] https://youtu.be/h5bDuvn_Tjw

I suspect you will get the same result as in these videos with a $235 Xiaomi Mi A1 and a $1000 iPhone X.

the processor might not be important but they (we?) are going to spend 1000 on a new phone if it's an iphone (actually also for a samsung like the new note), did you live under a rock in the last 10 years of smartphones? Sure not every person on the planet is going to, but a significant amount is (we'll see if it's enough to keep the expensive model on the shelf or not, that's a different story)

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