Samsung has become arguably the biggest player with regards to the Android platform after just announcing its latest smartphone, and last year it launched the Ice Cream Sandwich operating system with the Galaxy Nexus. Now we have news of a possible Google and Samsung project using an Exynos 5250 processor and a mystery phone.
It is pretty obvious that there is a good chance that Samsung will be asked to make the next Nexus handset, and as Android Authority are reporting normally comes at the end of the year. Now though Adam Green who is known as a ROM developer as found some code on Google’s Git Repository, which seems to suggest a next generation device being worked on by the two companies.
Trouble is though it is not known if the code belongs to a smartphone or a tablet, as we reported the other day Google is rumoured to be launching a Nexus tablet this year. The kernel code reveals the Exynos 5250 processor, an s5K4e5 camera, Mali GPU, S6EAB0 display with 1280 x 800 resolution, and a wm8994 sound chip. These components could quite easily be for a smartphone just as they could be for a tablet.
The Exynos 5250 processor otherwise known as the Exynos 5 Dual marks Samsung’s move to the Cortex-A15 architecture, and just like the Exynos 4 Quad it will use a 32nm HKMG technology. Last March it was announced by the company’s Senior Manager at Mobile Marketing, Massimiliano Villani, that the unit would be the first processor to be able to natively drive a WQXGA display.
Meanwhile Tech Source are reporting that Google’s next developer handset will join the rest of the Nexus range and come pre-loaded with Android 5.0 Jelly Bean, and the new operating system is set to be revealed at next month’s Google I/O event. It is also being reported about Adam Greens discover of the code that revealed technical specifications of a device being made by Samsung.
There is a chance that the next Galaxy Nexus will be the first device to feature the new generation of processors by ARM-Cortex A15, but in a dual-core configuration. This is up to five times quicker than the current generation based on Cortex A9, while the SoC created by Samsung the Exynos 5250 is four times faster than what is used in the Galaxy S2.
We will have to wait until next month’s Google I/O event to find out if more details about this mysterious device are revealed. Do you think this device is a smartphone or a tablet?