Samsung Galaxy S23 Handsets to Mostly Use Snapdragon SoCs, Suggests Qualcomm

Samsung Galaxy S23 smartphones are suggested to mostly use Snapdragon chipsets, Qualcomm has indicated. While answering a question in the Qualcomm earnings call for the period ending June 30, 2022, Cristiano Amon, President and Chief Executive Officer explained that the share of Snapdragon chips used in Galaxy S series phones has increased and will continue to be so. He noted that the US-based chipmaker has extended its partnership with Samsung expanding the use of Snapdragon platforms for future premium Samsung Galaxy products globally.

“The way you should think about it is [that] Snapdragon will power their Galaxy product line, their Galaxy flagship products. And what I can say at this point is we were 75 percent on Galaxy S22 before the agreement….we're going to be much better than that on Galaxy S23 and beyond,” Amon explained while replying to a question. This suggests that a majority of Samsung Galaxy S23 smartphones will be fitted with the Qualcomm's next Snapdragon flagship and not Samsung's own Exynos SoCs. It is to be noted that Samsung has been launching its Galaxy S series with Exynos chipsets in some markets.

Amon also said that Qualcomm has also extended its partnership with the South Korean company. “It's a multiyear agreement. And it's — that's probably what I can tell you. You should think about us powering their devices globally. In addition to Galaxy smartphones, the agreement includes PCs, tablets, extended reality and more. The extension encompasses 3G, 4G, and 5G technologies and devices and will also include future 6G standards and products,” the executive said.

The development comes about three weeks after TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claimed that the Samsung Galaxy S23 smartphones may only use Qualcomm's Snapdragon SoCs worldwide. He claimed that Snapdragon SoCs powered about 70 percent of Galaxy S22 smartphones — which is nearer to the number that Amon mentioned in his reply.

It is also to be noted that Qualcomm has not explicitly said that the Galaxy S23 series will solely be powered by Snapdragon flagship chips.

Kuo also claimed that Qualcomm's flagship 5G chip SM8550 is made by TSMC 4nm process and Samsung Exynos 2300 is made by Samsung 4nm process. The Snapdragon SM8550 is said to be optimised for TSMC's design rule, giving it advantages over the SM8450 and SM8475 in terms of computing power and power efficiency.