With Google having recently unveiled its range of Pixel 9 family and Apple set to release its iPhone 16 lineup next week, there’s feverish speculation as to which processor Samsung will opt for in its Galaxy S25 devices.
The company typically releases its flagship phones in two variants, which include Exynos and Snapdragon.
The Galaxy S25, Galaxy S25+, and Galaxy S25 Ultra will likely feature the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 SoC, Qualcomm’s upcoming high-end mobile processor exclusively, according to a new report from Hankyung.
The latest reports have surprised tech analysts who expected Samsung to announce the Exynos 2500 that would power the Galaxy S25.
The existing Galaxy S24 lineup launched with Exynos 2400 in most markets with the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24+. The Galaxy S24 Ultra meanwhile shipped with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.
Now though, if these reports are true, its entire S25 lineup will be powered exclusively by Snapdragon chips.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 is rumoured to offer a notable performance improvement, around 30 per cent in AI and GPU.
Samsung analysts are reported to have concluded that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 offers performance and power efficiency comparable to Apple’s upcoming A18 Pro processor.
But the move to Snapdragon could come at the expense of the new devices getting a significant price hike too. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has speculated on a 25-30 per cent bump in the price of the Samsung devices powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 4.
The existing Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset is priced somewhere between A$280-A$295, and Kuo believes that the upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 could be priced at between A$349-A$383.
One of the reasons for Samsung’s decision to opt for Snapdragon across its S25 lineup is that it won’t achieve the necessary quantity and quality of Exynos 2500 processors in time for the Galaxy S25 release.
The Exynos 2500 chip is expected to be ready by the first half of 2025, missing the Galaxy S25 launch window which typically occurs January-February each year.
The Exynos 2500 could then find itself a place among the brand’s foldable phones which debut later in the year including the Galaxy Z Fold7 and Z Flip7.
