Samsung’s next-generation Galaxy S-series phones could mark the end of an era. According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the company will likely offer a single-source processor for Qualcomm’s next S-series flagship. That would be a major shift for Samsung. For years, the company has used both Snapdragon and Exynos SoCs in its flagship phones.
The model you get depends on where you live. In the U.S., the Galaxy S and Note series phones come exclusively with Qualcomm chips, the envy of Samsung customers in Europe and Asia. In almost all cases in the past where Samsung has offered both Snapdragon and Exynos variants of its phones, the former has either outperformed the company’s in-house chips or offered longer battery life. Qualcomm processors also tend to offer a more consistent experience with apps and games.
Kuo said Samsung can’t ignore reality. “The S23 will probably not use Samsung’s 4nm-built Exynos 2300 because it can’t compete with the SM8550 in every way,” he said in a tweet, referring to the next-generation flagship chips from Samsung and Qualcomm. Such a decision would further cement Qualcomm’s dominant position in the Android market, Kuo added.
What all this means for the future of the Samsung Exynos brand is hard to say. The company spent several years working with AMD to design and manufacture the Galaxy S22Exynos 2200, only for the chip to encounter many of the same problems that affected its predecessor. Samsung Mobile President TM Roh reportedly told employees in April that the company was developing a chipset “unique” to Samsung smartphones, but did not elaborate on how the component would differ from the company’s existing Exynos design.