14 DAY TRIAL // Samsung currently uses its own Exynos chipsets and Snapdragon SoC from Qualcomm to power its smartphones and tablets, but the company has been considering sourcing processors from MediaTek for years now.
Samsung was interested in incorporating MediaTek chipsets in its low-end devices, specifically those powered by Tizen, which currently use Spreadtrum processors. MediaTek is the largest supplier of processors to OEMs in China, which means that a partnership would be extremely lucrative for both companies. Samsung seems to be aware of the opportunity and reportedly signed a deal with MediaTek a few months ago.
Now, the first Samsung smartphone containing a MediaTek chipset was spotted on benchmarking websites GFXBench and Geekbench. The phone is listed as SM-G615F and appears to run a MediaTek Helio P20 processor.
It could be a new iteration of the Galaxy On7 (2016)
The listings reveal some specs for the upcoming phone, particularly that it has a 5.7-inch full HD display and 3GB of RAM. Internal memory reaches 32GB, while rear and front camera have the same capacity of 13MP.
The Geekbench listing adds some more information, like the fact that the MediaTek Helio P20 chipset is clocked at 1.69GHz, while the phone runs Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box. Judging by the specs, this will be a mid-range smartphone and some reports say that it might be part of the upcoming Galaxy On7 iterations.
The original Galaxy On7 phone had the code number SM-G600, while the On7 (2016) had the code SM-G610. This is just speculation at this point, and the new SM-G615F might not belong in this series of Samsung Galaxy phones after all.
As the new smartphone will start receiving certifications, more information including its name will surely surface. Meanwhile, Samsung is working hard on developing the flagship Galaxy S8, expected to be announced on March 29. The smartphone will most likely run Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC and Exynos 8895 chipset, depending on the market.