U.S. Cellular model only has 3GB of RAM!!!

[ironass]

According to GSMArena's specifications for the U.S. Cellular carrier minority variant of the Galaxy S7/Edge, SM-G935R and SM-G930R,, it is particularly signalled out under the heading, "Memory", as only having 3GB of RAM instead of the normal 4GB for all other Galaxy S7/Edge models. See...

Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (CDMA)

Samsung Galaxy S7 (CDMA)

I can, strangely enough, find no mention of RAM for the U.S. Cellular, SM-G935R and SM-G930R, model on the Samsung website, here and here.

If this indeed turns out to be correct, I wonder how many people have ordered this phone from U.S. Cellular, thinking that they are getting 4GB of RAM?

It seems the U.S. and Chinese carrier minority variants, on the Qualcomm quad core chipset, are the, "Budget", S7 models, and that would make the U.S.Cellular phone the, "Value Edition".

(My thanks to KOLIO for pointing this out, here)

 

[KupKrazy]

Do the "lite" versions cost less or something? Otherwise, why would they do this?

 

[ironass]

Do the "lite" versions cost less or something? Otherwise, why would they do this?

I am still trying, without much success, to clarify the RAM situation with the U.S. Cellular model.

Carriers will ask Samsung to change hardware spec's to reduce the cost of each unit that they pay and consequently make more profit. For instance, a number of carriers dropped Gorilla Glass 3 from the Galaxy S4 model and kept very quiet about it. See, Gorilla Glass 3 not on all Galaxy S4's!!! As we can see, both the U.S. and China carrier minority variants have opted for the quad core, Qualcomm chipset as opposed to the rest of the world on the Exynos octa core. I'm guessing that this is because of cost as I can see no other reason.

 

[KupKrazy]

When you say "minority variants" do you mean that the big 4 in the US (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint) have the Exynos, but not the smaller carriers? I thought I had read that all of the US was getting the Qualcomm.

Anyway, that's interesting - sometimes I think that for Samsung to make a new production line for a "lesser" model - that it would actually cost Samsung more money to do that, and resulting in production costs being higher.

 

[mikedt]

"Chinese carrier minority variants"

That must be China Unicom or China Telecom then, can't be China Mobile. They have over a billion subscribers now, in other words once sixth of the world's population are China Mobile customers. ...although how many of them can actually afford to buy a new Samsung S7 is another matter.

 

[ironass]

When you say "minority variants" do you mean that the big 4 in the US (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint) have the Exynos, but not the smaller carriers? I thought I had read that all of the US was getting the Qualcomm.

The stock Samsung Global, worldwide, model has the octa core Exynos. The U.S. carriers, as do the Chinese, still insist on their own separate models, that are on the quad core, SnapDragon. So both these U.S. and Chinese, individual carrier models, are, "minority variants", as these are individual carrier branded models, each running separate firmware, in only 2 countries.

 

[ironass]

Take a look at the new U.S.Cellular site for both the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge models, G930R4 and G935R4 that clearly show these models as having only 3GB of RAM.

Galaxy S7 Edge G935R4



Galaxy S7 G930R4



Enlargement



It would not be the first time that carriers have altered the stock Samsung hardware spec's. See, here.