Samsung's Exynos chip isn't known as a powerhouse when compared to the best silicon from Qualcomm. But the upcoming Exynos 2200 — which might appear in some Samsung Galaxy S22 models — could be a big leap forward for Samsung's in-house chip.
Samsung plans to launch a new Exynos chip on January 11, and the expectation is that it will be the Exynos 2200. But in hyping the launch — both in a teaser video and a tweet — Samsung's providing a reason to be excited about this new chipset. It's going to have a GPU that taps into AMD's RDNA 2 graphics architecture.
Both the PS5 and Xbox Series X use RDNA 2, and while that won't turn Exynos-powered smartphones into portable gaming consoles, it should mean an improved gaming experience for mobile. Samsung is promising as much with the "Playtime is over" message in its teaser video.
Rumors of AMD's involvement with the next Exynos chip first surfaced last summer, thanks to leaked images of an Exynos 2200 chip featuring what appeared to be six AMD RDNA 2 GPU cores. Samsung's tweet about its January 11 launch doesn't include that level of detail, but it does promise the "next Exynos with the new GPU born from RDNA 2."
#PlaytimeIsOver. The gaming marketplace is about to get serious. Stay tuned for the next #Exynos with the new GPU born from RDNA 2. January 11, 2022. pic.twitter.com/0H2MeVUbeSDecember 30, 2021
That could make the Galaxy S22 launch expected next month even more intriguing. While we expect the flagship phones Samsung releases in the U.S. to run on the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 system-on-chip, Galaxy S22 models released in other parts of the world could feature the Exynos 2200 and its souped-up graphics. After all, Samsung has divvied up which chips appear in its Galaxy S models that way in the past.
The early part of 2022 figures to be a busy period for Samsung on the phone front. The company is expected to launch the Galaxy S21 FE sometime this month — possibly as early as next week's CES 2022 conference. That phone's likely to use last year's Snapdragon 888 chipset, just like the rest of the S21 lineup. Following the Exynos event on January 11, attention will turn to the Galaxy S22 launch, currently expected to happen in February.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 expected to power U.S.-based Galaxy S22 models boasts graphics improvements and advanced gaming features among its benefits, so Galaxy fans who get that phone won't be at a disadvantage compared to models powered by an Exynos 2200 with RDNA 2-based graphics. But it will be interesting to see how those phones measure up against their Snapdragon-powered counterparts.
