Samsung may bring back Exynos chips for the Samsung Galaxy S24

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

The Samsung Galaxy S23 lineup was something of an outlier where hardware is concerned. The phone is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy in every market, whereas Samsung previously used its own in-house Exynos chipsets outside the U.S. 

But that trend may be making a comeback for the Samsung Galaxy S24.

According to Business Korea, Samsung may launch the Galaxy S24 with an Exynos 2400 processor. It’s not clear how this would affect the North American market, and whether Samsung will stick to the same release strategy as previous years — one which saw American flagships launch with Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon chipset.

The site claims Exynos took a backseat earlier this year due to the game optimization controversy from last year. Because Exynos chips aren’t as power-efficient as Qualcomm, the Game Optimization Service (GOS) optimized performance to preserve battery life and present overheating. 

Exynos-powered phones had their performance nerfed as a result. According to Geekbench GOS-optimized performance was only 53.9% of the levels Samsung promised.

Business Korea claims that Samsung’s buying power has weakened as a result of its pivot towards Qualcomm chips, which is increasing production costs. So the company is reportedly considering switching back to Exynos for the next Galaxy S generation.  

According to Business Korea’s report, the Exynos 2400 will feature a 4nm process with a “lower power performance” node and a 10-core GPU. The chip may also benefit from Samsung's new partnership with AMD, with new graphics solutions based on AMD’s low-power and high performance Radeon graphic design assets.

However, the site also notes that Samsung may still be having problems with power consumption and thermal management. As a result there’s still a very good chance that the company will have to rely on Qualcomm chips for another year — though nothing is guaranteed at this point.

Sure-fire Snapdragon? 

Snapdragon 8 Gen 2

The Galaxy S23 is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 in all regions (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

In fact leaker @Tech_Reve recently claimed that the Galaxy S24 series would come with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, which is expected to launch later this year. The only real question is how the regional distribution will be split between Snapdragon and Exynos chips — assuming Exynos makes the cut.

Despite being a long way off, we’ve already heard a number of Galaxy S24 rumors. Apparently the phone will come with the same cameras as the Galaxy S23 series, though they may come with more RAM. Similarly should the phones use the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, its performance could well blow the iPhone 15 Pro’s A17 Bionic out of the water. The S24 Ultra may end up coming with a hybrid telephoto lens, capable of variable 3x and 10x optical zoom.

But at this early stage a lot could change, and we won’t have a better idea of what’s happening for some time. The Galaxy S24 series is expected to launch in early 2024, and we’ll be bringing you the best news and leaks as and when we hear it.

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Tom Pritchard
UK Phones Editor

Tom is the Tom's Guide's UK Phones Editor, tackling the latest smartphone news and vocally expressing his opinions about upcoming features or changes. It's long way from his days as editor of Gizmodo UK, when pretty much everything was on the table. He’s usually found trying to squeeze another giant Lego set onto the shelf, draining very large cups of coffee, or complaining about how terrible his Smart TV is.