Samsung's next-gen foldable phones are just around the corner, and more puzzle pieces are falling into place to paint a clearer picture of what we should expect from the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6. One recent puzzle piece concerns Samsung's chipset strategy for the upcoming foldable phones.
Previous rumors hinted that the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6 could become Samsung's first foldable phones to use a dual-chip strategy similar to the Galaxy S lineup. In other words, these devices would supposedly ship with an Exynos chip in some markets and a Snapdragon SoC in others.
A new report says otherwise. Anonymous sources cited by the Korean publication The Elec claim that the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6 will use a Qualcomm solution exclusively. Both phones will employ the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip globally.
It's not a matter of performance and reliability
According to the report, Samsung's decision to use a single chip across the Galaxy Z6 series globally has nothing to do with any concerns regarding the Exynos 2400 SoC performance or reliability.
Even though most people still prefer Qualcomm solutions due to the brand's reputation, Samsung's latest Exynos 2400 chip narrowed the gap with Qualcomm considerably. In the real world, the Galaxy S24 powered by the Exynos 2400 chip performs comparably to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 variant.
But regardless of how some may feel about Exynos, Samsung's alleged decision to stick to a Qualcomm SoC globally for the Galaxy Z6 series has nothing to do with performance and reliability, and everything to do with costs.
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The Elec sources say that for Samsung's dual-chip strategy to be beneficial and profitable, the company has to sell enough devices. Presumably, selling enough phones offsets the supposed extra cost of developing phones on two different platforms — Exynos an Snapdragon.
Even though Samsung foldable phone sales have increased every year, the recent Korean media report claims that they're still not popular enough for a dual-chip strategy to work in Samsung's favor. Hence, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6 will use the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 exclusively.
Samsung should unveil the two upcoming foldable phones in early July at Galaxy Unpacked.
Editor's Note: It's worth pointing out that Samsung's foldable phones are already recording more yearly shipments than the Galaxy Note series did in its last year — 2020. The Galaxy Note series did follow a dual-chip strategy, even though its shipment figures were lower than foldable shipments are today. Then again, the Galaxy Note series was shelved years ago, so it might not be a good benchmark for profitability.
Nevertheless, it shows that phones with fewer shipments than the Fold and Flip phones combined have used different chips in different markets before, so, maybe it's best to take Samsung's alleged motives behind the single-chip strategy with a grain of salt.
