SIII only Dual Core?? - Galaxy S III Q&A, (US Carriers)

So... Galaxy SIII in Europe comes with quad core processor - or so I've read... Why does the US only get dual core?? Can I use a European SIII on US T-Mobile network if I can get one?

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svavrek said:
So... Galaxy SIII in Europe comes with quad core processor - or so I've read... Why does the US only get dual core?? Can I use a European SIII on US T-Mobile network if I can get one?
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The US version has qualcomm chip which supports LTE, the Exynos does not... INTL version has 1GB RAM, and qualcomm has 2GB RAM, yes you can use an unlocked INTL I9300 on T-Mobile but will not get LTE and have less RAM... The trade-offs are up to you...

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svavrek said:
So... Galaxy SIII in Europe comes with quad core processor - or so I've read... Why does the US only get dual core?? Can I use a European SIII on US T-Mobile network if I can get one?
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Click to collapse
Because the Exynos processor doesn't work with T-Mobile's non-standard 42Mbps on AWS (1700 MHz) and it also doesn't work with the LTE. You can use the international one on T-Mobile but you'll only get EDGE data. If you use it on AT&T though you'll get up to HSPA+ because most of Europe uses the same bands as AT&T (850/1900 MHz). If you want to use international phones, T-Mobile is the worst carrier to be on in terms of data speeds, but they're moving to the same frequency as AT&T, so eventually you'll be able to use it on T-Mobile with up to 21 Mbps.
B-Naughty said:
The qualcomm chip supports LTE, the Exynos does not... INTL version has 1GB RAM, and qualcomm has 2GB RAM, yes you can use an unlocked INTL I9300 on T-Mobile but will not get LTE and have less RAM... The trade-offs are up to you...
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To be fair, the i9300 is a lot faster than the US models. But to be honest, unless you game, you won't notice a different. The 2GB of RAM was a "whoops, my bad" from Samsung for having to switch processors; RAM does not affect performance unless you have too little RAM. Even the Nexus 7 comes with 1GB of RAM. But anyways, it depends how you use your phone. The other big thing is that the US models have the "bug" or "feature" where you might lose your IMEI when flashing anything to the phone, with no chance (so far) to get it back, meaning you'd have to do a warranty swap to get a working phone. The i9300 also gets major updates first. Development, I would say, is about the same for both though.

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svavrek said:
So... Galaxy SIII in Europe comes with quad core processor - or so I've read... Why does the US only get dual core?? Can I use a European SIII on US T-Mobile network if I can get one?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll try to reply in a nice way before you get flamed by someone. The quad core version (International) does not support LTE, hence we have the dual core setup which does support LTE. You can use an international device on ATT and T Mobile minus LTE. If I recall correctly you may not even get HSPA + either but I don't know if that is true or not.
---------- Post added at 09:45 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:45 AM ----------
Product F(RED) said:
Because the Exynos processor doesn't work with T-Mobile's non-standard 42Mbps on AWS (1700 MHz) and it also doesn't work with the LTE. You can use the international one on T-Mobile but you'll only get EDGE data. If you use it on AT&T though you'll get up to HSPA+ because most of Europe uses the same bands as AT&T (850/1900 MHz). If you want to use international phones, T-Mobile is the worst carrier to be on in terms of data speeds, but they're moving to the same frequency as AT&T, so eventually you'll be able to use it on T-Mobile with up to 21 Mbps.
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Damn you beat me to it.

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Damn we be on this one... LOL

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Slight correction. There is a quad-core Exynos that supports LTE. Korea got it, but it wasn't completed by the time the US variants were in full production.

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The Root said:
Slight correction. There is a quad-core Exynos that supports LTE. Korea got it, but it wasn't completed by the time the US variants were in full production.
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Because the LTE radio is separate from the Exynos SoC. The Exynos itself does not support LTE. Think HTC Thunderbolt. What this results in is horrible battery life. The Galaxy Tab 7.7 did the same thing with the Exynos dual-core, adding a separate LTE radio with the Exynos processor. If you need LTE, you're better off with the Snapdragon S4 (which is no slouch btw). We're at a cell phone generation where all CPU's perform pretty much the same (current gen meaning S4 - Tegra 3 - Exynos Quad) until you really push them. So again, unless you're benchmarking or heavily gaming, you won't notice a difference.
Also, yes you'll get HSPA+ on AT&T (I'm using my i9300 on Straight Talk), but only EDGE on T-Mobile.

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Product F(RED) said:
The other big thing is that the US models have the "bug" or "feature" where you might lose your IMEI when flashing anything to the phone, with no chance (so far) to get it back, meaning you'd have to do a warranty swap to get a working phone.
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I'm starting to think even Samsung doesn't have a clue what's really going on with that... or a very ingenius way to sell some phones at full price... Hasn't deterred me any...

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B-Naughty said:
I'm starting to think even Samsung doesn't have a clue what's really going on with that... or a very ingenius way to sell some phones at full price... Hasn't deterred me any...
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Samsung supports developers. They gave the entire CyanogenMod team Galaxy S II's when they first came out. They hired Steve Kondik (Cyanogen), and they worked with XDA devs to try and fix the ICS recovery perma-brick issue on the SII, Note, and other phones. It's probably the carriers that messed with the software without knowing what they were doing.

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if you haven't heard already from previous posts the USA s3 supports lte and the UK one doesn't and we also have 2gb of ram they do not but they have a quad core chip to even it out and to be fair.
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