Exynos, according to one analyst, will be phased out in favor of Snapdragon processors.
Samsung’s Exynos processor has been underperforming, and this might be the last straw. According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, after Samsung’s Exynos 2200 failed to live up to expectations, the company would turn to an outside silicon vendor for the Galaxy S23.
As a result of the SM8550 [Snapdragon 8 Gen 2] produced by TSMC 4nm, Qualcomm will likely be the only CPU supplier for Samsung Galaxy S23 (instead of the 70 percent shipping proportion for S22),” he tweeted (opens in new tab).
Samsung’s own chipmaking operation, the 4nm Exynos 2300, would not be accepted because “it can’t compete with the SM8550 in all respects,” he said in a follow-up(opens in new tab).
TSMC’s design guideline means that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 will have “clear improvements” over the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 in terms of power and efficiency, according to him.
As a result, he concluded, Qualcomm’s near-total domination in the high-end Android industry would be further increased with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. “The high-end industry is less affected by the economic slowdown, therefore the market share increase would help Qualcomm and TSMC greatly,” he tweeted (opens in new tab).
Allowing the next generation to make an easier decision
This won’t matter much to the typical American consumer. Qualcomm processors have always been utilized in the Samsung Galaxy S series in the United States, whereas Exynos chips have been reserved for RoW regions, namely Europe and Asia.
Nevertheless, if you are a Tom’s Guide reader, you may have previously considered importing a different version of the Samsung Galaxy S if it promised much better performance than what is now available in the United States.
Exynos has always delivered lower performance than the Qualcomm counterpart, so theoretically, it should be possible, but it has never been tried. It was predicted that AMD’s cooperation in the processor would convert it into a gaming powerhouse, even capable of ray tracing, for the Samsung Galaxy S22 before to its introduction.
If claims of its strength were overblown, Americans had no motive to abandon their home source, as was the case above.
Is Samsung now accepting defeat and realizing that theoretical benefits of developing its own CPUs (like Apple’s success with the A and M series) are muted if real-world performance is underwhelming?
Last year’s inexpensive Galaxy A32 went with MediaTek, and there was even a bizarre rumor that the S23 might do the same. Qualcomm may not be the only one to benefit from this choice. Nevertheless, if Kuo is right, Samsung will likely stay with what has worked in the past, leaving Qualcomm as the sole global supplier.
To learn more about the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S23 and the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Unpacked August event, be sure to visit our Samsung Galaxy S23 hub and our Samsung Galaxy Unpacked August event hub.