Snapdragon on future Samsung’s S series

Which of the various Samsung flagship phones you receive depends on where you reside. While Exynos chips produced in-house are available in some markets, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon CPUs are available in others. And this has been the case for years, with a few extremely rare exceptions like the Galaxy S6 in 2015, which was Exynos-only. Despite having on paper comparable or even superior specifications than their Snapdragon counterparts, Exynos chips are generally thought to be inferior. You’ll be relieved to learn what Samsung might accomplish in the coming year if you reside in Europe and have been envious of those in North America and China who have Snapdragon phones.

Famous supply chain expert Ming-Chi Kuo claims that the Samsung Galaxy S23 may completely exclude Exynos CPUs in favor of Snapdragon processors in all markets next year (via 9to5Google). Even for users in Europe, Qualcomm would end up being the exclusive source of chips for Galaxy S23 smartphones.

Samsung has been experimenting with Snapdragon a lot more recently, most notably by introducing the Galaxy S22 with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 in India, a country that has historically favored Exynos. If this change is real, everyone in the world will receive a Galaxy S23 with a Snapdragon processor.

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What justifies this? It appears like Samsung is simply coming clean to avoid more embarrassment in 2019. Exynos 2300, which is expected to launch as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, will not be able to compete with the SM8550 chip because Qualcomm built it to conform to TSMC’s design specifications. Although embarrassing would be a strong word, the Exynos 2200 launch was a bit of a disaster, and this year’s Exynos-powered Galaxy S22 phones received a ton of unfavorable press. Samsung appears to be trying to avoid that happening again.

Does this indicate that Samsung has finished producing chips? Most likely not. A custom, Galaxy-only SoC is allegedly being created by the firm, but that won’t be available until the Galaxy S25 in 2025, according to rumors. While Samsung Semiconductor refocuses its efforts on that unique chip, it’s possible that we’ll see a few generations of Samsung phones that only use the Snapdragon processor over the course of the next couple of years. But as of right now, all of this is just conjecture. We’ll have to hold off and see.

One thing, however, is certain — many will be thankful if Samsung actually ditches Exynos on the Galaxy S23 entirely next year.