What you need to know
- The Samsung Galaxy S23 series is rumored to stick to only one brand of chipset.
- Samsung’s next-generation flagship smartphones are only expected to be powered by Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor.
- This means that next year’s premium Galaxy phones may bypass Samsung’s in-house Exynos SoCs altogether.
Samsung used to launch its Galaxy flagships with one of two processor brands inside – Snapdragon or Exynos – depending on which market you’re heading into. However, next year Samsung’s upcoming flagship Galaxy S series could go all-out on Qualcomm’s chipset.
According to a trusted analyst Ming Chi Kuo (Opens in a new tab)Samsung will ditch its Exynos chipset in favor of Qualcomm’s flagship processor for all Galaxy S22 successors in all markets. This means that the Exynos line can be removed from all variants of the Samsung Galaxy S23 series.
Kuo claimed in a series of tweets that the processor for the Galaxy S23 series will only be obtained from Qualcomm. The next-generation 5G semiconductor chipset is called Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, which is supposed to be built based on TSMC’s 4nm node. The chipset is also expected to power many of the best Android phones to be launched in the future.
According to Kuo, Samsung made the decision due to the Exynos’ underperformance compared to the Snapdragon. Samsung’s upcoming 4nm chipset dubbed Exynos 2300 “cannot compete with the SM8550 in all aspects,” analyst said. He said (Opens in a new tab).
The successor to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC is said to have been optimized according to TSMC’s design guidelines, giving it an edge over the current model in terms of computing power and power efficiency.
If true, it may indicate a departure from what Samsung has done in recent memory. Galaxy S22 series models, for example, were launched in Europe, Africa and some parts of Asia with Exynos 2200 on board. Meanwhile, variants powered by Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 have been launched elsewhere.
But the writing has been hanging on the wall since earlier this year. The India market, which has traditionally seen the release of Exynos variants of Samsung devices, got the Snapdragon flavors of the Galaxy S22 series in February.
Kuo says this pivotal move will boost Qualcomm’s share of the high-end Android market in 2023. Android Central has contacted Samsung for comment and will update this article when we receive a response.