Goodbye Exynos! Galaxy S23 series uses the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 worldwide, and it is a win-win for Qualcomm and Samsung.
Goodbye Exynos! Galaxy S23 collection makes use of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 worldwide, and it’s a win-win for Qualcomm and Samsung.
The Galaxy S23 collection is official, and whereas there’s so much to be enthusiastic about, Samsung is doing issues in a different way in a single key space. For the primary time in almost a decade, Samsung is providing Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for all Galaxy S23 fashions worldwide, with no Exynos variant supplied. The final time Samsung did this was with the Galaxy S5 in 2014, so this can be a momentous event.
Samsung has relied on a dual-sourcing technique for the previous 5 years, with the South Korean producer leveraging the Qualcomm-powered variants of its Galaxy S collection for North America, Korea and China, whereas launching Exynos-powered variations in different areas. That technique noticed a change final yr when Samsung started introducing the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 powered model of the Galaxy S21 in additional international markets – together with key regions like India and the UAE.
Samsung builds on that basis with the Galaxy S23 collection utilizing Qualcomm’s worldwide chipset. The brand new “Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy” is principally the identical Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 that was launched in late 2022, however the primary Cortex-X3 core is clocked larger at 3.36GHz, that means Samsung’s telephones ought to be capable of get extra efficiency out of them.
That is clearly an enormous deal for Qualcomm, but additionally a significant win for Samsung because it now has a flagship product line that’s globally similar. The transfer makes the newest units considerably extra enticing to clients within the UK and different European markets the place Samsung has solely bought Exynos variations till now.
After all, Qualcomm shouldn’t be in need of companions; the Chinese language contingent of OPPO, Vivo, Xiaomi and OnePlus use their chipsets solely of their high-end telephones, however none of those producers come near Samsung’s scale. Samsung has an unassailable lead within the mainstream class, and it’s usually the one Android different to the iPhone in key Western markets.
Samsung bought simply 30 million models of the Galaxy S22 collection final yr, and that is a number of orders of magnitude greater than the gross sales of all different premium Android telephones mixed. Qualcomm is now getting an even bigger piece of that worthwhile pie, and it is no shock that the chip vendor is making a giant a part of the partnership.
That is additionally the correct transfer for Samsung because it ensures that clients world wide have an identical expertise when utilizing the Galaxy S23 collection. That definitely wasn’t the case in earlier years as areas that obtained the Exynos variants had a distinctly sub-par gadget. It wasn’t that the Exynos chipsets had been inherently unhealthy, however they by no means measured as much as their Snapdragon counterparts.
I’ve had my share of points with the Exynos-powered Galaxy S flagships prior to now. The customized Mongoose cores that Samsung used up till the Exynos 990 had a bent to overheat, so the units all the time hit their thermal restrict sooner than the Snapdragon variations, affecting sustained efficiency. The Galaxy S20 was notably unhealthy at this, so Samsung began utilizing non-vent Arm cores with the following era.
Battery drain was additionally an enormous downside with the Exynos-based variations, and this was additionally a problem with final yr’s Galaxy S22 collection. Gaming was one other space the place Exynos designs did not fairly lower it, and whereas Samsung LSI seemed to make things better with collaborating with AMDnevertheless it nonetheless did not fairly internet the outcomes Samsung was on the lookout for.
Greater than the rest, it felt just like the Exynos variations had been holding again the Galaxy S line. As a result of Samsung needed to keep parity between the Exynos and Snapdragon variations, it could not reap the benefits of all of the options Qualcomm supplied on its chipsets, and that led to units that did not hit its full potential.
In that context, I am shocked it took Samsung so lengthy to get into Qualcomm, however I can perceive the reticence of the producer – the dual-source technique began as a approach to scale back dependence on one vendor. That is why Exynos has all the time been the choice alternative, however because of the collection of issues through the years, I am glad that Samsung is lastly making up for it with the Galaxy S23 collection.
There’s lots of pleasure in regards to the transfer, with Qualcomm touting all the brand new options coming to the Galaxy S23 because of the unique use of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, together with Cognitive ISP, new gaming options, Wi-Fi 7 and international 5G. connectivity, and up to date AI use instances. Briefly, we have a look at the best android phones of the yr
So the place does that go away Exynos? It is totally seemingly that the chipset will return in a number of years — Samsung LSI has sunk an excessive amount of cash into the platform to let it fall by the wayside. It’s doable that Samsung will use Qualcomm globally for the Galaxy S collection for 2 or three years, then we are going to see the resurgence of Exynos.
The cell chipset business wants robust competitors greater than ever, and with the retreat of Huawei in recent times, the variety of gamers has decreased to solely three: Qualcomm, MediaTek and Samsung LSI. I am wanting ahead to seeing what a brand new incarnation of Exynos has to supply, however for now I am glad Samsung is extending the Qualcomm partnership to cowl all areas.
With the general cell phone market in decline – Samsung’s income hit an eight-year low in This fall 2022 – and clients holding on to their telephones for longer, Samsung needed to do one thing very completely different to set the Galaxy S23 collection aside. And by introducing the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 model globally, it does simply that.
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