The ‘better’ Galaxy S23 FE could be exclusive to US customers

Last updated: July 14th, 2023 at 15:04 UTC+02:00

Well, those who were complaining about Samsung possibly using the Exynos 2200 chip exclusively for the Galaxy S23 FE got some good news today: It seems the Galaxy S23 FE will have a variant powered by a Snapdragon chip after all, as revealed by a benchmark listing on the Geekbench website.

The US variant of the S23 FE was benchmarked with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 under the hood, which is the same chip that powered the Galaxy S22 series. Like the Exynos 2200, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is now essentially outdated. It’s still a high-end chip, mind you, but by the time the S23 FE will make it to market, it will be almost two years old, just like the Exynos 2200.

And that will mean the S23 FE won’t be as cutting edge as its predecessors, because the Galaxy S20 FE and the Galaxy S21 FE used the same Exynos and Snapdragon chips as their non-FE counterparts. But what’s worse is that the Galaxy S23 FE variant fans would have liked – the one powered by the Snapdragon chip – could end being exclusive to customers in the United States as no Snapdragon-powered model has been spotted for other countries yet.

Now, the Exynos 2200 isn’t a bad chip, and Samsung has had plenty of time to optimize it since the Exynos 2200 made its debut in 2022 with the Galaxy S22 series, so the Exynos S23 FE will no doubt run pretty well. And let’s face it: the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 wasn’t spectacular either, partly because it was manufactured by Samsung’s less efficient process node, not TSMC’s.

Still, there’s no denying the fact that diehard Samsung fans prefer Snapdragon over Exynos, and many will likely be disappointed that they will only be able to get the Exynos 2200 variant of the S23 FE. Samsung could always bring the Snapdragon variant to some markets months after the Exynos variant (or more than a year later, as it happened in India recently), but right now it seems like Samsung’s in-house processor is the one most S23 FE buyers will have to make do with.

Of course, that’s assuming people will even want to buy the Galaxy S23 FE. It will no doubt have the usual aggressive Fan Edition pricing of $699 that will make it a good deal despite the not-so-latest chipsets, but Samsung will want to distance its launch from that of the Galaxy S24, especially if the Galaxy S24 series’ Exynos chip is going to be considerably better than the Exynos 2200.