Galaxy S22 may get Snapdragon globally as Exynos 2200 disappears

Samsung has been fitting flagship smartphones with its Exynos chipsets for the longest time. In some markets, the devices are released with the comparable Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. Others get the Samsung Exynos chip. That's what was expected to happen for the upcoming Galaxy S22 series as well.

Markets across Asia, Middle East and Europe would have received the Exynos 2200. Those in China, South Korea and North America would get the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. However, it appears that this may not be the case.

Global Snapdragon rollout for Galaxy S22 will excite many

It's no secret that the Snapdragon chipsets have continued to outperform Exynos. This was particularly true with the Galaxy S20 series. Its Exynos 990 chipset had slower CPU and GPU performance, worse battery life, higher clock speed throttling and inefficient heat management compared to the Snapdragon 865 that customers in select markets got.

Samsung was heavily criticized for the poor performance of its chipset compared to the Snapdragon. There were petitions to try and stop Samsung from using Exynos processors in its phones. The company's own shareholders questioned why it continued with custom chipset development.

The company has made a big change since then. Samsung is no longer designing custom CPU cores as it did before. So its next flagship chipset, the Exynos 2100 used in the Galaxy S21 series, had licensed ARM CPUs instead. Samsung would take a similar approach for the Exynos 2200 that was to be launched with the Galaxy S22 series.

That's not why a lot of Samsung fans have been looking forward to the Exynos 2200, though. This is Samsung's first mobile chipset to feature an AMD Radeon-based GPU or graphics processor. Samsung first announced back in 2019 that it would integrate custom AMD Radeon graphics in future Exynos processors.

All signs pointed to the Exynos 2200 being introduced with the Galaxy S22 series. However, it was reported earlier today that Samsung had pushed back the Exynos 2200 launch date. A tipster from South Korea is now claiming that the Exynos 2200 is “gone,” at least in the context of the Galaxy S22 lineup.

This would mean that all variants of the Galaxy S22, Galaxy S22+ and the Galaxy S22 Ultra released across the globe would be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. That's going to be exciting for a lot of people. It's also going to be disappointing for those who have been waiting to experience the fruits of Samsung's GPU collaboration with AMD.

Samsung may decide to launch the Exynos 2200 later in the year. It won't have any new flagships due between the Galaxy S22 series and the Galaxy Z Fold/Flip 4 handsets that aren't due until the second half of 2022. Perhaps it may be introduced with the Galaxy Tab S8 lineup, but even that's not certain right now.

Do keep in mind that none of this has been officially confirmed by Samsung. These are just reports that have come in from multiple sources today. We should find out by next month if there's any truth to these. Samsung is expected to launch the Galaxy S22 series in early February.

Korea Snapdragon
US Snapdragon
Europe Snapdragon

Exynos 2200 is G.O.N.E.
(It might be released later, but I'm sure that it's not going to be in Galaxy S22 series.)

— Dohyun Kim (@dohyun854) January 11, 2022

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