Samsung has quietly updated its product page for its flagship Galaxy S8 smartphone, removing references to the UFS 2.1 standard on the phone’s on-board storage. This comes after it was revealed that the company sources storage chips using UFS 2.1 and a slightly older UFS 2.0 standard.
Much like the recent revelations regarding Huawei’s sourcing of storage and memory chips from different standards, Samsung’s issue likely stems from supplier shortage, prompting it to source from other companies. According to SamMobile, there are three different storage chips used on the Galaxy S8 and S8+.
For all Galaxy S8 and S8+ models using the Exynos processor, the devices are equipped with a UFS 2.1 storage chip made by Samsung. For the Snapdragon-powered variants, some use UFS 2.1 chips from Toshiba, while others are fitted with UFS 2.0 ones also sourced from Toshiba.
However, the differences between UFS 2.0 and UFS 2.1, while present, should not be visible for the average user. UFS 2.1 has read speeds of up to 800MB/s, while UFS 2.0 maxes out at around 500MB/s. eMMC 5.1, on the other hand, has a maximum theoretical read speed of 250MB/s – meaning the Huawei P10’s hardware issues a lot more of a lottery compared to the Galaxy S8.
Galaxy S8 users can check which storage chip is used for their device using a terminal emulator, but since all Exynos-powered models use the faster UFS 2.1 Samsung chip, Malaysian Galaxy S8 owners are not on the shorter end of the stick.
(Source: SamMobile, XDA Developer Forums)
