Samsung's sticking with Snapdragons for the Galaxy S24 – but it's working on alternatives

Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 system-on-a-chip powers the best Android phones this year - including the best Samsung phones for 2023, the Samsung Galaxy S23 range. Where previous Samsungs were powered by Samsung's own Exynos chips in many parts of the world, Samsung has temporarily stopped that.

The key word there is "temporarily". While Samsung reportedly plans to stick with Snapdragons for the next generation of Galaxy phones, the Galaxy S24 range of 2024, it still wants to use its own silicon – so you can expect to see a Samsung processor taking pride of place in the Samsung Galaxy S25.

Samsung's getting its house in order

The problem with Exynos chips is pretty simple: they're not good enough any more. Snapdragons perform better and more reliably, and they deliver better battery life too. Samsung's own processors have fallen quite far behind, which is why this year's Galaxy phones are solely powered by Snapdragons and Samsung is reportedly planning the same for next year.

In the longer term, though, Samsung wants to be like Apple and control its own key technologies. To that end, SamMobile reports, its Samsung MX division has created a team of engineers to design processors specifically for high-end Galaxy smartphones. 

The team's first system-on-a-chip isn't expected to be ready in time for the Samsung Galaxy S24, but it's currently planned to make its debut in the Galaxy S25 in 2025. That of course depends on its performance and reliability: Samsung isn't going to move back to its own silicon if Snapdragons still deliver a superior experience.