The Galaxy S23 FE will go official in less than a week, and some Samsung fans are dreading the return of the region-based Exynos and Snapdragon split that has been the tradition for Galaxy S flagships for the longest time, a tradition that Samsung broke in 2023 by using only a Snapdragon chip on both foldable and non-foldable flagships.
While both Exynos and Snapdragon Galaxy S23 FE variants have been confirmed, there seems to be some confusion about the Snapdragon variant. To be more precise, some are wondering if the Galaxy S23 FE will use the Galaxy S22 lineup's Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 or the Plus version found inside the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4.
Part of the confusion seems to stem from the fact that Geekbench, one of the most popular benchmarking utilities available on Android, mentions ‘taro' as the codename for both the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and the 8+ Gen 1. So how does one make sure which of the two chips will be powering the Snapdragon Galaxy S23 FE?
Galaxy S23 FE will have the slower, less efficient Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
That can be done simply by comparing the clock speeds for the CPU cores on devices using those chips. The Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 has higher clock speeds on all of its eight cores, with the fastest core clocked at 3.2GHz. The non-Plus version, on the other hand, runs that core at 3GHz. It's the same story for the seven remaining cores, which are 200-300MHz slower on the 8 Gen 1.
And, for the Galaxy S23 FE, the slower and less efficient Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is the one Samsung has opted for. The company likely did so to maintain parity with the Exynos variant of the phone and/or achieve a lower price tag, though it could also simply be part of Samsung's efforts to clear out old inventory.
However, despite the older silicon, the Galaxy S23 FE should offer better performance than the Galaxy S22 series thanks to software optimization and improvements in Samsung's 4nm manufacturing process. Efficiency should get a boost as well, though how performance and battery life will hold up in real-world use is something we will only find out once we get our hands on the device and put it through its paces.
