Samsung's Manufacturing Process Cleared of Blame

ARM’s chip design is increasingly regarded as one of the causes of the overheating problem of Android smartphones.

ARM’s chip design is causing performance- and heating-related problems in a large number of Android smartphones, including those of Samsung Electronics, Xiaomi and Motorola using the application processors of Samsung Electronics and Qualcomm, industry analysts say.

“At present, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon and Samsung Electronics’ Exynos application processors are in use in most flagship Android phones and these phones are problematic in terms of heating, performance and power consumption,” said an industry source, adding, “The application processors have been designed by ARM, the same problems have been confirmed in both of those manufactured by Samsung Electronics and TSMC, and thus it can be said that the cause is not the manufacturers but the designer.”

Meanwhile, some experts point out that the problems are a result of various combined factors such as manufacturing processes, application processor design, peripheral components and smartphone performance itself. “iPhone application processors are also designed by ARM but the phone has never been problematic in terms of heating and performance,” one of them said.

“iPhones are also based on ARM’s chip design but Apple and ARM tune the processors for use in the iOS,” he explained, adding, “On the other hand, Samsung Electronics and Qualcomm are developing application processors for use in multiple manufacturers’ various models and it seems that those processors using the design without any change is leading to problems.”

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