SHOTS
FUCKING
FIRED!!!
Chainfire XDA ‏@ChainfireXDA
@AndroidPolice I know QC variant will be available in Europe as well ...
https://twitter.com/ChainfireXDA/status/312354634863898624
guys, i'm starting to suspect that all LTE enabled models will be Qualcomm'd!
so yeah remember how we had all sorts of LTE enabled single and dual core phones and then we got to quad core and *BAM* we got Qualcomm'd because of LTE? the story goes like this...
the Galaxy S3 came with a Snapdragon S4 because that SoC had its own built-in baseband that supports LTE and DC-HSPA+ 42 and none of the standalone LTE basebands at the time were efficient enough to work with the quad core Exynos (or Tegra 3, hence the One X/EVO LTE also using the S4) because of the size and power drain.
later that same year, the Qualcomm MDM8x15 baseband was released. it was 28nm and supported those requirements, hence the Galaxy Note II, AT&T One X+ and other devices, including the S4 Pro devices (unlike S4, S4 Pro doesn't have an onboard LTE baseband) all using 8x15 variants in the US.
the Snapdragon 600 doesn't have a built-in LTE baseband, and neither does the Exynos Octa so they would both need a separate (presumably 8x15 based) baseband for cellular connectivity. now, we already know that the Snapdragon 600 works fine with the 8x15 baseband as it's in the One and the G Pro...
So, first someone at Samsung NL says they'll have the SD600, now Chainfire, who's trying to root a GS4 remotely mentions it will be in some areas of Europe too...
the only way it makes sense for the Exynos Octa to not be everywhere in every GS4 is... Exynos Octa is too big of a big power drain and can't work in a phone, even with the 8x15... so maybe that's what happened? Octa too hot for LTE phones?