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Samsung may make exclusive processors for its Galaxy smartphones, like the Tensor chip in the Google Pixel 6 series. Roh Tae-moon, aka TM Roh, the president of the Korean firm’s mobile business, revealed the plans during a town hall meeting last month.
According to an inews24 report, Roh was responding to a question regarding the recent GOS (Game Optimization Service) controversy and Samsung’s plans to resolve the issues around it. In his response, Roh suggested the company will make a processor “unique to the Galaxy”. It may be looking for deeper hardware-software integration here.
But Samsung could always do that since it has in-house Exynos chipsets, you might argue. However, smartphones and processors are manufactured by two different Samsung business divisions — MX and LSI respectively. Although part of the same chaebol, the two divisions have a buy-sell relationship. Samsung LSI makes chipsets with Android smartphones in mind, not Galaxy smartphones.
It’s unclear whether Samsung LSI will make the reported Galaxy-exclusive processors or Samsung MX will turn to some other brand. The Korean brand’s chip fabrication technology has historically been inferior to TSMC’s. That is evident this year too, with both Exynos 2200 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 performing below expectations. MediaTek’s Dimesity 9000, which is manufactured by TSMC, has impressed in both performance and power efficiency.
If Samsung MX wants its Galaxy-exclusive processors to be the best in the market, it might be better off without its sister firm Samsung LSI. We expect to hear more on this story in the coming days.
Samsung LSI needs to rethink its Exynos processor lineup
While this move comes as a surprise, it’s quite evident that Samsung needs to rethink its Exynos process lineup. The company’s in-house chipsets have always underperformed competing solutions from Qualcomm. Even MediaTek, which recently entered the flagship smartphone SoC market, is now topping its offerings. So much so that the Korean brand is now reportedly mulling replacing Exynos with MediaTek’s Dimenisty processors in the Galaxy S23 series. The Galaxy S22 FE could also get MediaTek chipsets. As such, we wouldn’t blame Samsung MX for having Qualcomm or MediaTek make exclusive chipsets for its Galaxy devices and TSMC manufacturing those.
As for Samsung LSI, not many third-party Android OEMs are buying its Exynos processors anyways. MediaTek offers better solutions and cheaper prices. So the company has its task cut to first survive in the industry and try to win back the confidence of smartphone makers. Time will tell whether it succeeds.