A couple days ago I wrote a piece about the HTC U Ultra, wondering why HTC would release a Snapdragon 821 phone in 2017 when the rumor has LG and Samsung dropping Snapdragon 835 flagships in as little as a month.
Well, I've spoken to some industry insiders in Asia today and I must apologize to HTC, because it would appear that the 835 is out of their reach until after April, so they couldn't have used the 835 without drastically delaying the phone. In fact, that's the case with almost all phones, including LG's flagship. Yup, I have confirmed with an industry insider that the LG G6 will run on Snapdragon 821 instead of the 835 that everyone's expecting.
The reason? Samsung has first dibs.
"The Snapdragon 835 won't be available in large quantities until after the Galaxy S8 launches," the source told me.
I guess this shouldn't really be this big of a surprise, since Samsung is helping Qualcomm build the chip. Apparently, the 835 won't be widely available until after the release of the Galaxy S8, which I've been told by the same source will be April 14 in South Korea.
Obviously I can't reveal who my source is, but I've been traveling around Asia visiting phone companies, and this person has first hand knowledge, so to me, this isn't really a rumor but a leak: the LG G6 will run on Snapdragon 821.
LG has proven in the past it doesn't really stress too much about using the latest chip. Two years ago, its G4 opted for the Snapdragon 808 instead of the 810 that was available due to concerns about overheating. When I visited LG headquarters last December, one of the company's top people told me it's more important to have a "proven SoC that they can test thoroughly than the latest, fastest," because mobile tech has improved to a point that the differences between two chips released half a year apart may be negligible anyway.
Whether or not the 835 really is a big improvement over the 821 remains to be seen, but this year LG must rely on other factors to promote its G6 against the S8. Rumors of the G6 perhaps getting the Pixel's Google Assistant should help. The G6 is also expected to have very slim bezels and bring back the dual-camera with the wide-angle lens, the latter of which I find very useful.
Still, it's going to be an uphill battle.
A shot over of Bangkok shot with a normal lens...
...and shot with the wide-angle lens.
