Samsung is strengthening its partnership with Qualcomm, one that further increases the adoption of Qualcomm’s chip and networking technology across all Samsung hardware. But the biggest takeaway from the ad is that the involvement of snapdragon chip within premium Galaxy smartphones is rising, while that of Exynos is about to shrink further. And that’s great news for him. Samsung Galaxy S23.
Qualcomm’s press release mentions that the two companies have agreed to further strengthen their collaboration, which involves expanding the use of “Snapdragon platforms for future Samsung Galaxy premium products, including smartphones, PCs, tablets, extended reality and more.” However, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon made it clear during the earnings call that there is more Snapdragon silicon for Galaxy smartphones, and Exynos is on the way.
Speaking in the context of Galaxy’s flagship products, Amon mentioned: “We were at 75% in Galaxy S22 before the agreement. You should be thinking that we are going to be much better than that in Galaxy S23 and beyond. To really drive home the point, the Qualcomm boss concluded with: “Think of us powering your devices globally.”
The war between Exynos and Qualcomm goes into the background
To recall, Samsung has historically split shipments of its flagship phones across Exynos and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips. Cache sold in markets like the US had the latest top-tier Qualcomm Snapdragon chip inside, while units destined for markets like India and Europe got the versions with Samsung’s in-house Exynos chip.
To put it mildly, not all buyers were happy to spend top dollar just to get a galaxy flagship with an inferior chip. There’s no shortage of benchmarks and videos proving Exynos chips struggled to match the raw performance of comparable Qualcomm silicon.
But that is not all. Heating has been another issue with the Exynos model of Samsung’s flagships that raises its head almost every year. The in-depth tests by DxOMark they also concluded that the Snapdragon version of the Galaxy flagships takes the crown in camera performance compared to the Exynos models. Additionally, users have also reported GPS issues and random performance fluctuations on Exynos models over the years.
Saving the Galaxy S23 from the Exynos heat
Such is the heartbreak that fans even released a petition against Samsung by selling them Exynos processors in flagship Galaxy smartphones. Needless to say, Exynos-powered flagships have earned a pretty nasty reputation. The Galaxy S22 series is the latest illustration of how chip issues have carried over to a later generation of phones in 2022.
But now, it seems that Samsung has finally had enough of the problems and complaints. The strengthening of its partnership with Qualcomm is a clear sign that Samsung is committing to Snapdragon silicon for at least the next half-decade of the flagship Galaxy smartphone era.
For the foreseeable future, it looks like Galaxy S23 buyers won’t have to live with the Exynos bitter pill, at least most if not all buyers in all markets. It would be interesting to see what updates the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 that powers the Galaxy S23 will bring. Given the performance of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 series chips, things are looking bright for the Galaxy S23 range when it arrives early next year.
Interesting times, desperate moves
According to a report by the Korean news outlet iNews24, Dr. TM Roh, head of Samsung’s mobile division, revealed at a town hall meeting that the company will produce a new line of custom processors exclusively for its Galaxy smartphones. It’s a smart move, as that would allow Samsung to shed Exynos’ bad reputation and the recent GOS throttling controversy.
Partnering with Qualcomm gives Samsung ample time to work on processors that lack Exynos’ shortcomings. The company has all the resources in the world to do just that. Samsung’s partnership with AMD to make powerful GPUs for mobile processors is public knowledge.
In addition, Samsung’s chip manufacturing prowess isn’t weak either. Samsung recently became the world’s first company to begin mass production of next-generation 3-nanometer process-based chips. In doing so, Samsung outpaced TSMC, the main supplier of Apple’s M-series silicon for Macs and A-series chips for iPhones.
With Qualcomm on its side, Samsung can deliver top-notch Android flagships without any Exynos issues attached to them. In the meantime, it can stay low for a few years and come back with a new family of smartphone SoCs powered by AMD’s graphics engine expertise to beat Qualcomm’s benchmark and make more money doing it.
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