Samsung's next-generation Exynos chipset powered by AMD graphics will make its debut later this year under the Exynos 2200 brand, claims a new report from the local media citing unnamed major component suppliers and partners. More importantly, the report suggests that the Exynos 2200 solution will power an ARM Windows 10 Samsung laptop scheduled to hit the shelves in the second half of 2021.
Samsung confirmed last month that it is working with AMD to create a next-gen mobile GPU that will be launched in the next flagship product. The company hasn't specified exactly what type of device this ‘next flagship product' will be but most Samsung fans assumed it's a Galaxy smartphone.
It turns out that the Exynos 2200 SoC could be part of Samsung's longer-term plans to challenge Qualcomm in the portable PC segment.
Samsung might want to challenge Qualcomm's ARM laptop dominance
Samsung's mysterious Exynos 2200-powered Windows 10 laptop will apparently lay down the foundation of the company's long-term plans to challenge Qualcomm in the ARM notebook market. Samsung has previously released a few ARM Windows 10 notebooks of its own, but they were powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon chipsets.
With ARM-based Windows 10 notebooks seemingly increasing in popularity, Samsung may want to capture a larger share of the ARM-based PC chipset market and / or cut its dependency on Qualcomm, so the AMD-powered Exynos 2200 SoC could be the answer.
Where does this leave the smartphone segment?
The Exynos 2100 chipset that was released with the Galaxy S21 series was a step in the right direction for Samsung's mobile AP arm. It ditched the custom cores in favor of ARM cores, and many fans expect the next-gen solution to replace the Mali GPU with an AMD-made graphics chip.
The Exynos 2200 SoC is said to achieve exactly that, though exact specifications are unknown. More to the point at hand, it's unclear whether the so-called Exynos 2200 SoC will be Samsung's only AMD-powered high-end chipset to debut this year — and therefore power both smartphones and laptops alike — or if said chipset is designed specifically for notebooks and Samsung's planning another AMD-SoC for the mobile segment.
Whatever the case may be, rumors suggest that we should be getting the opportunity to test Samsung's first Exynos chipset equipped with AMD graphics, in one form or another, before the end of 2021.
