What's next for Samsung's Exynos processors?

The future does not look bright for Samsung’s proprietary Exynos chipset lineup. Qualcomm has announced that going forward Samsung’s flagship smartphones (like the S and Z series) will be powered exclusively by Snapdragon SoCs.

Previously, there was always a minor but stable share of Samsung flagship smartphones that featured Samsung’s own processors. Usually, there were two variants of the device - one housing a Snapdragon, and another - an Exynos chip.

The relative share of Exynos-powered smartphones in Samsung’s flagship lines has been on the decline. With the S22, only 1/4 of all units carried Samsung’s proprietary chipset. In the next generation that share will be approximately 0.

Android Authority reports in an article that the Samsung Galaxy S23 lineup will be ditching the Exynos processor altogether. Analysts like Ming-Chi Kuo have predicted such a move from the Korean tech giant for a long time, but now Qualcomm itself has confirmed the decision as reported by Maeil Economic Daily.

What’s more, Qualcomm will now become the exclusive supplier of processors for all Samsung flagship smartphones for the foreseeable future. This means that Exynos variants of future non-S series Samsung flagships are also unlikely.

Naturally, this begs the question - is Samsung pulling the plug on its Exynos processors? After all, the latter have almost invariably underperformed in comparison to their Snapdragon counterparts, in addition to notoriously struggling with thermals. In a nutshell, an Exynos Samsung flagship has almost always been inferior to a Snapdragon one.

Interestingly, Samsung has denied the speculations that the end of Exynos has come. According to the Korean tech giant, the (temporary) suspension of Exynos chipsets is a business decision. For reference, some time ago, rumors about a potential Galaxy S25, powered exclusively by Samsung chips, emerged.

Perhaps this temporary halt is just the next step in Samsung’s plan to step up its processor game. Let’s see if Samsung can ever truly beat Apple in the latter’s own game.