Samsung Galaxy S25 series likely to only use Snapdragon 8 Elite chip
Is this good news or bad news for Samsung fans?
Samsung will launch the Galaxy S25 series of smartphones in a few months. Sure, the company hasn't announced anything official yet, but if it follows the same launch cadence as previous years, we can confidently say it'll happen. And while not much is known about the upcoming phones, we have heard that Samsung is likely to use the Snapdragon 8 Elite in all of them.
A new leak from Ice Universe (which has a solid track record) says that Samsung will use the newly announced Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite in all of the S25 models. That isn't surprising, as the Snapdragon 8 Elite sounds like an impressively powerful SoC.
While there's been no shortage of rumors that Samsung would use a mix of the Exynos 2500 and the MediaTek Dimensity 9400 in the phones, if this new leak is accurate, those chips appear unused in the latest smartphones. Samsung locking in on one chip for all models (and presumably, all regions) that would allow the devices to have more uniform performance across the board, creating a consistent ecosystem for all S25 owners.
Samsung Galaxy S25 series uses the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip. Not the Exynos 2500 and Dimensity 9400October 23, 2024
Of course, there's always the possibility that the leak is inaccurate. Samsung could use the Exynos or MediaTek chipsets to decrease costs and lower phone prices, especially in regions outside the U.S. However, with noted leaker Jukanlosreve backing up Ice Universe's claim, this rumor does have a certain amount of reliability to it.
One of the more exciting aspects of the Snapdragon 8 Elite is support for up to eight years of updates. This would allow Samsung to pull ahead of rival phone makers Apple and Google if it elected to support the Galaxy S25 series with that many software versions.
Hopefully, we'll learn more about Samsung's plans soon as the company typically announces its new smartphones in January—2024's Unpacked event took place on January 17, 2024.
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Dave LeClair is the Senior News Editor for Tom's Guide, keeping his finger on the pulse of all things technology. He loves taking the complicated happenings in the tech world and explaining why they matter. Whether Apple is announcing the next big thing in the mobile space or a small startup advancing generative AI, Dave will apply his experience to help you figure out what's happening and why it's relevant to your life.