We’re still a little bit away from when Samsung is expected to launch the Samsung Galaxy S25 in January. At the moment, we’re anticipating Samsung’s latest foldables — the Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 — to arrive on July 10 during a Samsung event in Paris. However, a new leak from Ming-Chi Kuo has tipped some details about the Galaxy S25 specs.
As expected, the Samsung Galaxy S25 will pack the latest and greatest hardware with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4. According to Kuo, Qualcomm will be the sole supplier of the S25, unlike the previous year, when it only supplied 40% of the chips for the S24. That means there will not be different Qualcomm and Exynos models scattered across the global market, which should reduce the performance difference experienced by users. The Exynos 2500 may simply not be ready to ship due to a lower-than-expected 3nm yield.
Qualcomm will likely be the sole SoC supplier for the Samsung Galaxy S25 (vs. 40% for the S24), as the Exynos 2500 may not ship due to Samsung’s lower-than-expected 3nm yield.
In addition to the significant increase in supply share, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will see a price…
— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) June 17, 2024
That’s not great news for Samsung’s in-house chips, but it is great news for Qualcomm, which will benefit from the increased market share and Samsung users who value the reliably powerful performance offered by Snapdragon chips compared with what you typically get on Exynos. It’s also good news for TSMC, which is the exclusive supplier of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4.
While we don’t have a frame of reference to compare the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 with the yet-to-be-released Exynos 2500, we do know that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 outperformed both the Exynos and Tensor chipsets of its generation in benchmark tests.
There is a big downside here, though. This leak from Kuo essentially confirms that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will be 25-30% more expensive than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, which could translate to a hundred dollars or more of a price increase when the Galaxy S25 finally comes out.
However, we’re still many months away from when the Galaxy S25 is expected to launch, so there’s no need to panic just yet. There’s always a chance that Samsung may choose to eat some or all of the cost of the new chips rather than hike prices. After all, with phones like the S24 Ultra that is already upward of $1,000, there’s only so much you can increase the price without dramatically reducing your potential market.
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