According to a report from Business Korea, Samsung may be forced to use Snapdragon chips exclusively across the entire Galaxy S25 lineup.
Despite a mixed-launch strategy for the upcoming S25 series — where some regions were expected to receive Samsung’s Exynos 2500 and others Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips — recent rumors suggest that performance issues with the Exynos 2500 could push Samsung to rely solely on Qualcomm solutions for all S25 models, not just the Ultra variant.
This decision would mean that the Galaxy S25 Ultra and the standard S25 and S25 Plus models may be equipped with Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 processors. The issue is that Samsung reportedly doesn’t have enough time to fix the alleged performance problems with the Exynos 2500 for the S25 series launch, expected in the first quarter of 2025.
Historically, Samsung has used Exynos and Snapdragon chips in different markets, but the shift to an all-Snapdragon lineup wouldn’t be entirely unprecedented. Before the Galaxy S22 series, Samsung had a long-standing practice of launching Galaxy S devices with Qualcomm chips in certain regions while most of the world received Exynos-powered devices. This could mark a return to that strategy.
However, such a decision could significantly blow Samsung’s semiconductor division. The company has been attempting to compete with TSMC but recently faced setbacks, as TSMC secured significant contracts with Apple and Nvidia for 3nm chip production.
According to the latest reports, TSMC held a 62.3% share of the global semiconductor market in the second quarter of 2024, while Samsung trailed with 11.5%.
