Samsung will use Exynos processors for the future “Galaxy S25” according to SamMobile media. Qualcomm’s “Snapdragon” processors will still be used on future foldable smartphones in the “Galaxy Z” series, which will be released during the second half of the same year.
Exynos and MediaTek chips should also equip entry-level smartphones in the “Galaxy A” series, which will be marketed next year.
A way of the cross for Samsung
Samsung is therefore expected to use the Exynos 2500 for the Galaxy S25 series, and has formed a dedicated team to create this next-generation Exynos chip. Samsung would use its foundry’s second-generation 3 nanometer (nm) manufacturing process to do this.
Samsung has struggled in the mobile processor market recently due to overheating and poor performance, seen for example with the Exynos 2200 used in the Galaxy S22.
It consequently suffered the humiliation of having to position its competitor Qualcomm’s processor, the Snapdragon 8 Gen2, on the “Galaxy S23” released last year.
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However, for the Galaxy S24 series, Samsung has embedded Snapdragon and Exynos processors depending on the model. According to Counterpoint Research, Samsung’s share of the global mobile processor market in the third quarter of last year was declining, at 5%.
“Although the Exynos 2400 (embedded in the Galaxy S24) represents a significant improvement over the previous chip, it is still not comparable to the latest Snapdragon,” explains SamMobile, “and several other improvements are necessary for the Exynos chips achieve parity with Snapdragon processors.”
Last year, during its fourth-quarter earnings presentation, Qualcomm said it had signed a multi-year deal with Samsung to supply Snapdragon chips for the Galaxy brand’s upcoming high-end smartphones. The deal begins this year and is expected to cover at least two more generations of the “Galaxy S” series and the “Galaxy Z” series.
The high-end Snapdragon 8e chip could run at a frequency of 4 GHz. It is being developed under the code name Tongzi and would feature Oryon CPU cores customized by Qualcomm instead of Arm’s Cortex cores.
“It would be more expensive for Samsung to pay licensing fees to Qualcomm (to run Exynos chips) than to use Snapdragon chips,” says SamMobile, adding that “even if the Exynos 2500 is as impressive as claimed Rumors say it might be too extreme for Samsung to completely adopt the Exynos for the Galaxy S25 series.
Source: “ZDNet Korea”