Samsung Galaxy S25 could contain a surprising new hardware twist

When Samsung picks the processors for its Galaxy S series phones, there are always two options: Qualcomm's Snapdragons, or Samsung's own Exynos. But next year's Samsung Galaxy S25 range may introduce a third, rather surprising chip supplier: MediaTek.

While Samsung doesn't currently use MediaTek processors in its S series, it does use the firm's systems in some of its other models – and reports suggest that a so-far unannounced MediaTek Dimensity processor could be faster than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4. That's the processor that might end up in your next Samsung Galaxy S.

The news comes via South Korean title The Financial News, as reported by 91mobiles. The report says that Samsung is planning to launch the Samsung Galaxy S25 models with "not only Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 and Exynos 2500 but also Taiwan's MediaTek Dimensity chip".

Why a new processor could power your next Samsung Galaxy S

Although it hasn't been announced yet, the imminent MediaTek Dimensity 9400 was the subject of a leak earlier this year that showed it outperforming the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 in benchmark tests. 

The processor is believed to be based on the second generation of TSMC's 3nm N3E manufacturing process and to be built around a new Cortex-X5 prime core that's clocked to 3.4GHz. That prime core is expected to be teamed up with three Cortex-X4 performance cores and four Cortex-A720 efficiency cores and deliver significantly improved performance and energy efficiency over the current top-line Dimensity 9300, which powers phones such as the Oppo Find X7 and a bunch of Vivo models for the Chinese market.

According to the report, Samsung may be considering the Dimensity 9400 for two important reasons: according to a tipster quoted in the article, Samsung's chip yields for the Exynos 2500 have just cracked the 40% mark, but Samsung needs that figure to hit 60% before it can begin mass production.

As we reported last week, Samsung was apparently considering going all-in on Snapdragons – but Qualcomm may have thrown a seriously big spanner into those plans because reports from credible sources such as industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo indicate that it intends to hike the price of its next Snapdragon by a significant amount, believed to be in the region of 25% to 30%. Not only that, but the next-gen Snapdragon may also need larger batteries as it will have more performance cores than the current version.

With Snapdragons getting more expensive and more demanding, and the Exynos 2500 not yet doing the numbers Samsung wants to see, a Snapdragon-beating MediaTek chip starts to look awfully attractive.

The Samsung Galaxy S25 is expected to launch in January 2025.