Galaxy S23+ appears on GeekBench; Snapdragon might soon power all Samsung flagship phones

2023 is coming, and with it, a new lineup of Samsung Galaxy S phones. And up until now, Samsung has been using two different SoCs for its S series: the Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets in handsets made for the American market, and its own Exynos processors in phones made for Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. However, with the Galaxy S23, Samsung might use a different approach.

According to TheElec, Samsung will use mostly Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset to power its new Galaxy S23 lineup, which could mean that all markets might receive Galaxy S23 phones with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC beating under the hood. As for the Exynos platform, TheElec's sources claim that the tech giant will likely use it to power its mid-tier smartphones instead of its flagships.

However, notice that TheElec says that Samsung will use mostly the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 in its S23 lineup. So, what could that mean? Well, unfortunately, we can only speculate at this point. But as we recently reported, the tech giant mentioned that it is readying to launch a new S-series of phones that will strengthen the "core identity and experience" of the Galaxy brand.

This could mean that Samsung might be cooking up some changes in the whole composition of its S series. For example, the tech giant might launch a slightly toned-down Exynos-powered S model as part of the S23 lineup.

Samsung has already launched less powerful phones as part of its S series. One such example is the Galaxy S10e, which was not as powerful as its bigger brother, the Galaxy S10, but was still an S-series phone.

So next year, we might see a Galaxy S23, S23+, and an S23 Ultra powered by a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and a less powerful S23 handset powered by an Exynos silicon. Of course, again, everything is just speculation at this point.

Galaxy S23+ spotted on Geekbench

Speaking of S23s and Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, the folks from MySmartPrice just spotted a Galaxy S23+ listing on Geekbench, which reveals some key specs about the upcoming phone.

As per the listing, the phone bearing the model number SM-S916U will come with an octa-core processor code-named "kalama," which has a prime core clocked at 3.36GHz, three cores clocked at 2.02GHz, and four cores clocked at 2.80GHz. The SoC will also come equipped with a Qualcomm Adreno 740 GPU. According to rumors, the code name and these specs belong to the upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset.

For those curious about the Galaxy S23+'s Geekbench score, the phone managed to score 1485 points in the single-core test and 4844 points in the multi-core trial. In comparison, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 version of the Galaxy S22+ managed to score 1096 points in the single-core test and 3142 in the multi-core trial. So, we can see that the newer model will come with a lot more firepower.



The listing also shows that the handset will come with 8GB of RAM. However, Samsung will most likely offer it with other memory configurations as well. In terms of software, the Galaxy S23+ will run Android 13 straight out of the box.

Recently, the S23 and the S23 Ultra were also spotted on Geekbench. And their results are also a big improvement compared to those of the S22 lineup. The Galaxy S23 Ultra scored 1,521 points on the single-core test and 4,689 on the multi-core test. As for the regular S23, it scored 1524 in the single-core trial and 4597 points in the multi-core test. For comparison, the S22 Ultra managed to score 1,240 single-core points and 3,392 multi-core points and the regular S22 scored 1044 single-core points and 3007 multi-core points.

The S23 series is expected to be announced in February 2023. Samsung announced the S22 lineup in February this year, so we expect to also reveal its next S series around this time next year. In terms of prices, well, we think that the regular Galaxy S23 will start at $799, the Galaxy S23+ at $999, and the big bad Galaxy S23 Ultra at $1199. As of right now, Samsung hasn't revealed the prices or the release date of the Galaxy S23 lineup, so these are just our expectations. But when it does, we will let you know asap.