Latest leak offers clarity on the Galaxy S24’s Exynos-Snapdragon situation

Samsung has been gearing up for its next mainline smartphone in the Galaxy series, the Samsung Galaxy S24, for a long time now. The company’s current flagship offerings in the Galaxy S23 series offer some of the best phones in the Android side of the industry, especially when talking about the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. When looking towards the future, however, it seems like it’s just another day, another rumor about what Samsung is going to do about the Galaxy S24 line’s processor. The newest rumors point to a stark split globally regarding whether you’ll be able to purchase the phone with an Exynos or Snapdragon chip inside.

We first heard that Samsung was developing a new chip that would power the Galaxy S24 series in global markets outside North America back in the summer. Just days ago, Samsung officially unveiled a new processor, the Exynos 2400, at its 2023 SLSI Tech Day Event. The company promises that the Exynos 2400 will have 70% faster CPU performance and up to 14.7x faster AI processing compared to the Exynos 2200.

The Galaxy S23 launched worldwide with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC, which was greatly appreciated by pretty much everyone. Over the years, Galaxy smartphones with Samsung-developed Exynos chips had lagged in performance compared to Snapdragon-based Galaxy devices. Before, North American markets had typically been the only region to get Snapdragon-powered Galaxy phones, while other global markets had received phones with Exynos chips.

Now, it seems like we’re going backwards into the Samsung Galaxy S22 era with a chipset split. Korean media outlet The Elec reported that the Galaxy S24 and S24+ will ship with an Exynos chip in global markets and with a Snapdragon chip in North America, but the Galaxy S24 Ultra will ship with the Qualcomm-created Snapdragon processor across all markets (via Android Authority).

With Samsung heavily investing in the Exynos 2400, it makes logical sense that it would use that chip in the Galaxy S24, but without real-world usage testing with the chip, any potential consumer concern is fair. The Exynos series of SoCs have not only lacked in performance but have also run hot, overheating smartphones.

The most interesting tidbit here is that, if this rumor is true, then global consumers can still buy a Galaxy S24 phone with a Snapdragon chip inside of it. The Galaxy S24 Ultra will be a top buy for people who want to get the most out of their phone’s performance. If some people are on the edge of wanting or not wanting to buy the Galaxy S24 Ultra versus the Galaxy S24+ or Galaxy S24, then maybe the chip split could push them to pay a bit more for the Snapdragon model.

With the release of the Galaxy S23 FE series in the rearview mirror, Samsung can fully focus on the Galaxy series’ next batch of smartphones. We expect the S24 series to be announced and released at the beginning of next year. With many variables in the rumor mill and the announcement of the newest Exynos chip, the rumored decision to split the chipsets among different markets could either be a clutch move, or it could be a dumpster fire decision.