Samsung Galaxy Z-series foldable phones won’t have an Exynos-powered variant in 2023, report says

Samsung has yet to unveil this year’s lineup of foldable phones, but a new report already claims to have the first details about the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5. Both devices, like their predecessors, are expected to exclusively use Qualcomm’s upcoming premium SoC under the Snapdragon brand. This appears to be an early hint at Samsung continuing to use a similar strategy for its foldable phones, at least in the coming year.

While the electronics giant has been using both Snapdragon and its own Exynos chips for the flagship Galaxy S-series phones, Samsung has made Qualcomm’s chips the exclusive processor for the Galaxy Z-series devices for a few years now. And The Elec reported that the company already has its eyes on the upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (SM8550) as its SoC of choice for the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5.

The Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5 are still more than a year away from entering the market, but their reported chipset should not be a surprise. The more interesting aspect of the report is that Samsung is expected to continuously rely on Qualcomm’s chips for its premium phones despite announcing its first Exynos processor equipped with an AMD GPU earlier this year.

The strategy might not be new for the Galaxy Z lineup, but an earlier report has also claimed that Samsung is considering applying the same strategy for next year’s Galaxy S-series phones. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said Samsung knows the Exynos 2300’s performance is not on par with the expected upgrades in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. Kuo predicts Qualcomm to “be the sole processor supplier for Samsung Galaxy S23.”

Qualcomm is expected to unveil its SM8550 SoC later this year. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is widely anticipated to be manufactured using TSMC’s 4nm process.

The Elec, citing industry sources, also reported that Samsung had set a much lower shipment target for the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5, with only 2 million and 8 million units planned, respectively, in 2023. The (machine-translated) report, however, noted that these shipment targets were set from a conservative outlook, and Samsung could make production adjustments later on.

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