Don’t give Exynos a chance next year

The year in which every Samsung flagship came with a Snapdragon chip inside it is almost over. We will soon enter December, a month that's all about the holiday spirit, but Samsung will probably be busy working on the Galaxy S24 lineup, which is expected to launch on January 17.

Part of Samsung's efforts will be spent on getting things right with the Exynos 2400, the SoC that will power the base Galaxy S24 and the Galaxy S24+ in most markets. Samsung's semiconductor team took a year off to give itself extra time to make Exynos chips great again, and after repeated embarrassment from Qualcomm over the last few years, Samsung is running out of opportunities to make a proper comeback.

It was great to see Samsung accepting that it needs to do better and deciding to skip launching an Exynos 2300 this year. And with the company having had almost two years to work on the Exynos 2400, there's a good chance it will be an excellent chip.

But should we, as consumers, give Samsung — and Exynos — a chance next year? I don't think so. It doesn't matter if the Exynos 2400 is amazing or if it's another misfire. Flagship phones are costly, and we should be asking for the very best when handing out our hard-earned money. Samsung, unfortunately, hasn't yet proved it is going to offer us the best next year with the Galaxy S24 lineup.

Samsung needs to gain our trust back before asking for our money

Remember: corporations don't care about you, only your money. Apple may have the costliest phones in the market, but that doesn't mean Samsung is doing us any favors by not charging as much as its archrival. Galaxy phones are cheaper than iPhones purely because Samsung knows it can't charge as much as Apple as its brand power isn't that strong.

Speaking of Apple, have you seen how amazing its iPhone (and Mac) processors have been over the last few years? Samsung's Exynos chips simply don't match up to what's underneath those iPhones, and until last year, neither did Snapdragon chips. But this year Qualcomm closed the gap – the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is virtually as powerful as the iPhone 15 Pro's A17 Pro and is only held back by the fragmented nature of the Android ecosystem that stops developers from taking full advantage of all the power on tap.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is expected to be even better, but the Exynos 2400 will remain a big question mark until the Galaxy S24 series goes on sale and the devices have been put to the test. Frankly, I don't care if the Exynos 2400 falls behind in performance. Smartphones already have more power than anyone needs. Efficiency is where it's at these days, and it has long been the Achilles heel of Samsung's Exynos SoCs while Qualcomm has continue to make great strides.

If Exynos proves its worth next year, we'll buy Exynos Galaxy flagships in 2025

But, again, even if the Exynos 2400 turns out to be extremely efficient and the Galaxy S24 and S24+ offer as good as or better battery life than the Galaxy S23 and S23+, I think Samsung needs to learn that trust is hard to gain back. I mean, when a company that makes both the phone and the chip inside it fails to make the two work well together, it's a good sign that the company isn't working hard enough despite charging huge amounts of money for its high-end devices every year, and that simply shouldn't stand.

Now, I know many average consumers will pick up an Exynos Galaxy S24 or S24+ as most people don't really care about all this. And that's fine. But those who do know how Samsung has been taking us for a ride these last few years by putting up a subpar product need to vote with their wallets. They should also be advising those who aren't tech savvy against getting a Galaxy S24 or S24+ if it has the Exynos 2400 under the hood.

If the Exynos 2400 is the comeback we have all been hoping for, then we can open our wallets for Samsung in 2025. But if you're looking for a new flagship phone right now, the Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23+ are still excellent choices.

The S24 and S24+ won't really bring any major hardware upgrades, and some of the AI features that Samsung is touting for its next flagship will probably come to the Galaxy S23 series with the One UI 6.1 update. The only important thing you will miss out on is a year of updates, as the Galaxy S24 will get an additional Android OS upgrade by virtue of being a newer device.