Several rumors say that Samsung will return to its old way of deciding which application processor will power next year’s Galaxy S24 flagship line in various markets. As it did earlier this year, in the US and China, the latest chipset from Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for the Galaxy, can be found under the hood of Galaxy S24, Galaxy S24+ and Galaxy S24 Ultra. Almost everywhere else, Samsung would use its homegrown Exynos 2400 SoC.
Why would Samsung bring back Exynos chips for the vast majority of its flagship devices?
But why would Samsung even consider this given that the manufacturer has been doing really well to power every Galaxy S23 model with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2? The answer, like much else in life, may have something to do with money. A post on Chinese social media site Weibo by tipster Digital Chat Station (via Wccftech), which has a decent track record, reveals that Qualcomm will be asking more for each Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset for the Galaxy than the $160 that Sammy charged for the Galaxy 8 Gen 2 for the Galaxy SoC.
Digital Chat Station posts about the high price of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
Back in June, another tipster pointed out that by using the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 on all Galaxy S23 devices regardless of the region in which they were shipped, Samsung lost any leverage it had with Qualcomm over pricing. However, if it uses its own Exynos 2400 SoC on the vast majority of phones in the Galaxy S24 series, Samsung may be able to get away with increasing the amount of RAM on the flagship models’ base configurations, increasing the minimum storage of Galaxy S24 to 256 GB from 128 GB on Galaxy S23keep the prices the same and still make some money.
As it turns out, the early rumors for Galaxy S24 line have Samsung equip the basic versions of Galaxy S24, Galaxy S24+, and Galaxy S24 Ultra with 12GB of RAM, which would be a nice step up from the 8GB of RAM that comes with the base variants of the 2023 flagship models. And Galaxy S24 Ultra could be available with as much as 16GB of RAM paired with 1TB of storage. The maximum amount of RAM on the Galaxy S23 Ultra is the 12 GB available with 512 GB or 1 TB of storage.
Digital Chat Station says some phone manufacturers will respond to the high cost of using Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset by using the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 or by switching to MediaTek’s Dimensity 9300 SoC, which is produced using the same N4P TSMC 4nm process node that will be used to build Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Equipped with four X-4 prime CPU cores, the Dimensity 9300 is the only AP to support the fastest LPDDR5T RAM. But the fear is that the chip might not be as efficient as Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.
The Exynos 2400, with its deca-core configuration, could be competitive with Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
A company like Samsung may not have the option to use the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 again, and if it can save money by packing its 2024 flagship with its own powerful deca-core chipset, why not? Recent benchmark tests show that the Exynos 2400, while lagging behind Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in Geekbench’s single-core and multi-core scores, is still competitive. What Samsung might worry about is how its fanbase in markets outside the US and China would react if it decided to power its next flagship series with the Exynos 2400 in those regions.
Samsung Foundry’s 3nm node includes the use of Gate-all-around (GAA) transistors, which surround the channel on all four sides and help the chip deliver faster performance while consuming less energy. TSMC continues to use FinFET transistors and will begin using GAA transistors with its 2nm node, which is expected to begin volume production in 2025.
When it comes to Galaxy S24 series, Samsung has a few options when it comes to the SoC it will put under the hood. It can pay Qualcomm’s higher price to get enough Galaxy 8 Gen 3 chipsets for all the flagship devices. This would be the most expensive option and may force the manufacturer to make some improvements to the line. It can use the cheaper Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset again or the MediaTek Dimensity 9300, which is also not an acceptable solution.
Or it can use its own Exynos 2400 chipset in most markets as well Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC reserved for US and China. If it comes down to these options, the last one is the solution most likely to be used by Samsung.
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