Samsung previously confirmed that it has successfully recorded a smartphone AP on its second-generation 3nm (SF3) node. It is widely believed that this Exynos 2500 was intended to power the Samsung Galaxy S25, Galaxy S25+, and if a dodgy rumor is accurate, even the Galaxy S25 Ultra. However, industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has bad news about Samsung’s upcoming SoC.
A tweet from https://twitter.com/mingchikuo/status/1802737528874955169 claims that the Galaxy S25 series will be powered exclusively by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 4. Apparently, the performance of the Exynos 2500 is “lower than expected.” This is consistent with a previous report that put its performance at ~20%. However, the SoC has not yet entered mass production and Samsung Foundry has plenty of time to improve the performance situation. Furthermore, the Exynos 2500 has been touted as the ‘Dream Chip’ to return Exynos to the top, and the chances of Samsung abandoning it seem slim.
Although Kuo has had a history of making accurate predictions, this one seems implausible. For starters, Samsung has publicly stated that it plans to use more Exynos chips wherever possible due to the rising costs associated with TSMC’s cutting-edge nodes. As a result, the Galaxy Z Flip6 is rumored to be more expensive than the Galaxy Z Flip5, and the Galaxy Z Fold6 could also follow suit.
Samsung even chose MediaTek’s Dimensity 9300+ for its upcoming Galaxy Tab S10 as a cost-cutting measure, and it wouldn’t make much sense for the company to go all-in on Qualcomm to keep costs down. Kuo adds that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will be 25-30% more expensive than its predecessor. It is not surprising because Qualcomm explicitly said this after the launch of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.
