Galaxy S23 will use a custom Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 variant produced in Samsung factories

The reason Samsung has not yet been confirmed as one of the partners that will use the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 appears to be that the South Korean manufacturer will use a custom version of this processor. What’s more, that variant will be built in its factories and will be more powerful than the standard variant, according to information currently available. This processor variant will be used in the Galaxy S23 series worldwide, including markets that have traditionally received Exynos variants.

Galaxy S23, S23+ and S23 Ultra could be the most powerful Android phones on the market

New information published on Twitter by RGcloudS, a tech leaker, suggests that there will be two Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 variants, or SM8550. The first is the SM8550AB, the one we’re already seeing on smartphones and which is being developed by Qualcomm in TSMC’s factories on the N4P node on 4nm. This is a standard variant with standard capabilities.

Samsung, however, will use the SM8550AC, a custom variant, which it will produce in its factories on the LPE manufacturing process, also on 4nm. It will however get extra capabilities, especially in video and video playback capability. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 on the Galaxy S23 will thus get support for sensors with integrated DRAM on the photo side, which will allow shooting in 8K resolution at 60 frames per second.

2 version of snapdragon
Standard sm8550 ab

Custom program
( like cortex x ) sm8550ac

It’s designed for devices with unique capabilities

For sensors with built-in DRAM, unlocking feature beyond spec
[email protected], etc

For display, sony might use it for native [email protected]
Total 300hz

⬇️

– RGcloudS (@RGcloudS) November 16, 2022

Other sources also talk about possible overclocking, which suggests that the processor used by Samsung will also get higher frequencies for the performance cores. Thus, the Galaxy S23 models could be the best performing Android smartphones on the market. However, Samsung is not a company known for efficient cooling on its devices, so it’s possible that the high performance may not be sustained over long periods of time.