Ein speziell für Indien entwickelter Smartphone-Modell enthüllt die größere Bedeutung von selbst entwickelten Chips.

6.7-inch, 90Hz waterdrop screen, up to 8GB + 128GB storage configuration, 13-megapixel front camera, 50-megapixel + 5-megapixel + 2-megapixel rear triple cameras, single speaker, side fingerprint...

For a phone released in 2025, the above configurations are undoubtedly at the "bottom" level. In fact, this model, the Galaxy F17, is indeed a "budget killer" that Samsung has just launched in the Indian market for local entry-level users.

Why is it called a "killer phone"? It's really not sarcasm, but because this entry-level Samsung phone actually has some outstanding features.

On the one hand, although it doesn't have a large internal storage, it supports a microSD card expansion of up to 2TB, which means Samsung doesn't make money solely from storage capacity. On the other hand, for this model priced at just over a thousand yuan, Samsung has promised a system update cycle of up to six major Android versions. In other words, although it is currently launched with "only" Android 15, it can still use the latest version of the system, at least until Android 21 in 2031. Just this alone makes it superior to many flagship devices whose performance and price are several times that of it.

So, how did Samsung manage to do this? Is it just because they are especially "kind-hearted"?

As we all know, Samsung has indeed been very close to Google in recent years. Whether it's the Wear OS system used in smartwatches or the built-in AI services in phones in overseas markets, Samsung and Google have clearly had technical cooperation. Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that Samsung has "privileges" in the development and implementation process of the new Android system, such as getting the system code earlier or having a deeper ability to "customize" the Android system at the bottom level.

But apart from this reason, the seemingly entry-level SoC of the Galaxy F17 may also have played a key role.

To put it simply, the Galaxy F17 is equipped with Samsung's self-developed Exynos 1330. Its internal code name is S5E8535, using Samsung's own 5nm process. It has two A78 big cores clocked at 2.4GHz and six A55 small cores clocked at 2.0GHz, and is equipped with the Mali-G68MP2 GPU solution. In addition, it also integrates Samsung's own 5G baseband and an ISP capable of up to 108-megapixel processing.

Overall, the level of Samsung's self-developed SoC is roughly equivalent to MediaTek's Dimensity 7025 or Qualcomm's Snapdragon 4 Gen1. Although it is indeed "entry-level", it is not the lowest level among existing smartphone SoCs. More importantly, since it is Samsung's self-developed SoC, it means that they theoretically have full control over the driver and system adaptation of this SoC. And this is the key to ensuring a system update cycle of up to six major versions.

This actually gives us a wake-up call. In the past, when it came to "self-developed chips", we first thought of various flagship products and their significance in seizing technological high - grounds and "standing out" in the industry.

Huawei's HarmonyOS 4.x system has also received praise for pushing updates to very old models

But besides "good benchmark scores" and "helping manufacturers create more differentiated high - end products", who says self - developed chips can't start from the low - end and use serving the general consumers as the core competitiveness? And since they are self - developed chips, a longer software adaptation cycle and more long - term system adaptation should naturally be the obvious advantages of these devices that users can feel.

After all, the meaning of consumers supporting the domestic industry is to let more people use good products, right?

This article is from the WeChat official account "3eLife" (ID: IT - 3eLife), author: 3eLife Staff. It is published by 36Kr with permission.