Samsung Clears Way for Exynos Octa 5 in Galaxy Note 3

Samsung has confirmed that lack of LTE compatibility was not the reason why the Exynos 5 Octa chip isn’t found across the board in the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S4. In fact, the company says that the octo-core processor is indeed LTE compatible which paves the way for an arrival inside not only the Galaxy S4 but the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 as well.

Read: Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Rumors Take a Twist.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 processor has seen a bit of turmoil since the device debuted earlier this month. The company announced that it would be coming with two different processors, either its own Exynos 5 Octa processor or a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core processor. The company has only released vague details about which regions will be getting which processor.

To make matters worse, the company seemingly reneged on an earlier pronouncement that the Galaxy S4 in the UK would be running the Exynos 5 Octa. Instead, it appears that it will be coming with the Snapdragon 600.

There had been rumors floating around that a lack of compatibility with LTE was the reason why the company did not issue the Exynos 5 Octa inside some versions of the Galaxy S4, particularly, the U.S. variants which will all be getting the Snapdragon 600. However, thanks to a confirmation from Samsung’s Exynos Twitter account, we now know that the Exynos 5 Octa is compatible with all 20 bands of LTE.

Update on LTE capability: The #Exynos 5 Octa processor supports LTE and all 20 bands

— SamsungExynos (@SamsungExynos) March 28, 2013

What this means is that it’s not compatibility issues that are holding the processor back, but likely supply issues that provoked Samsung into using two different processors with the Galaxy S4.

And now that we know that the Exynos 5 Octa supports LTE, it paves the way for Samsung to use it in the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, its upcoming phablet that has already been rumored to have it on board.

Read: What the Samsung Galaxy S4 Reveals About the Galaxy Note 3.

Furthermore, it likely means that the device won’t have to deal with the split processor situation that Galaxy S4 buyers have had to encounter.

The Samsung Exynos 5 Octa is an extremely interesting processor as it has eight cores on board but only utilizes four of them at a time. Samsung says that this increases performance and battery life over previous Exynos processors.

Samsung’s Galaxy Note 3 has already been pegged for an arrival this September at IFA 2013 in Berlin. Samsung has used the event to debut its past two Galaxy Note models. As for the rest of the Galaxy Note 3, it’s rumored to have a flexible unbreakable display that may measure in at 5.9 or 6.3-inches in size, up from 5.5-inches on the Galaxy Note 2.