Samsung's Exynos chipsets have been the source of controversy for years now, especially for customers outside of the US. Things were looking up when the Galaxy S23 series launched globally with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, but that unity was short-lived, as the recently released S23 FE goes back to using an Exynos SoC outside of North America, and that leaves me worried about the upcoming S24.
What's wrong with Exynos?
Exynos chipsets have always lagged behind the equivalent Snapdragon processor, generating more heat while being slower. This isn't so much of an issue if a phone uses an Exynos chip worldwide. At least that way, everyone gets the same product, where reviews will have meaning for everyone who reads them, and this is the case for the Galaxy A54.
The issue is that Samsung has a track record of using the market-leading Snapdragon chips in North American countries while everyone else is stuck with the worse-performing Exynos SoC. A perfect example of this was the S22 series from 2022. The US got the phone with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, a chip with some thermal issues but nothing major. Here in the UK, my S22 Ultra used an Exynos 2200, and it seemed fine for a month or two but quickly deteriorated.
The phone would mostly perform alright when doing light tasks like reading Gmail or chatting in Telegram, but something like Twitter or Instagram — apps where a lot of images would need to be loaded — would make the phone very warm, and games would push temperatures into the realms of discomfort. The phone got buggier with time, too, with the use of the Space Zoom feature having a 50/50 chance of locking the phone up and forcing a reboot.
This situation was worse than it needed to be because no reviews mentioned this. Why? Because the majority of phone reviews are written in the US, ours included, those phones didn't have these issues. Samsung was likely raking in the money with this method as well. Snapdragon chips are notoriously expensive for OEMs, while the Exynos 2200 was made in-house by Samsung, offering better margins. Combine that with the fact European Samsung phones cost considerably more than US devices after currency conversion, and is it any wonder that people were upset?
It also made a difference to regular customers; this isn't a case of the phone nerd crying about something ordinary people don't care about. A lot of the UK marketing for the S23 series emphasized the 8 Gen 2, and when I got mine, I had friends and family ask me about the new chip, something that had never happened before.
What does the future hold?
The S23 series, before the FE launched, was a breath of fresh air. Finally, I could read the review this very site published about the S23 Ultra in the knowledge that my experience should be the same. The S23 Ultra is, bar none, the best smartphone I have ever used, and a large part of that is the performance and optimization the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 brings to the table.
But, as mentioned at the beginning, the S23 FE uses Exynos in some regions outside the US, including the UK. It's an underclocked version of Exynos 2200 that called my S22 Ultra home. Does this mean I'll have to face disappointment next month and buy an Exynos S24 Ultra? I know people with an S23 shouldn't be planning an upgrade to the S24; I certainly wouldn't if I had a different profession. But S23 users will look at the S25 or S26, and the S24 indicates what those phones might become.
Current rumors suggest that, for now, I probably shouldn't worry. It looks as though the S24 UItra will benefit from the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 worldwide, while the two smaller models will get a new Exynos chipset outside of America. Good news for me, but bad and confusing news for customers who don't want the boxy Note-inspired behemoth. That's even assuming these rumors are true; we don't have any official information about the S24 range yet and likely won't until we near the rumored January release.
I love Samsung hardware and software. It's what I've used every day for nearly five years. But that might change if Samsung sticks me with an inferior product and charges me extra for it again. I may not like it quite as much, but the Pixel 8 Pro is a mighty tempting phone where I won't have to worry about which region I buy the phone.
The Galaxy S23 FE's use of Exynos internationally has me worried about the S24 - Android Police
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