Performance is one of the most important aspects of smartphones. Nearly all Android flagship phones of today are sufficiently fast for most users but Samsung’s Galaxy S23 series is the fastest. The trio is powered by a custom version of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip that powers the likes of Xiaomi 13 Pro and OnePlus 11. The phones are about to lose their edge against other Android phones though, according to a new leak.
Called the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy, the Galaxy S23’s custom chip is a slightly enhanced version of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. Compared to the standard version’s primary CPU core which has a clock speed of 3.2GHz, its big core is clocked at 3.36GHz. The chip’s GPU has a frequency of 719MHz, which makes it slightly better than the Gen 2 which runs at 680MHz.
Other than that, the chip also features Cognitive ISP which enables a real-time processing technology called Semantic Segmentation to improve image and video processing. AI performance also gets a boost, thanks to an upgraded Snapdragon Hexagon processor.
In short, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy is a spruced-up version of the original chip which makes everything from CPU performance to gaming performance ever so slightly better.
So far, the chip was exclusive to the Galaxy S23, but popular Weibo leaker Digital Chat Station (via Android Authority) claims that Chinese companies will soon be able to get their hands on the over-clocked version.
Qualcomm often gives its high-end chips a mid-cycle refresh by bumping up clock speeds, so it’s safe to assume that the freely available variant will be known as the Snapdragon 8+Gen 2.
This is good news for customers who want to buy a premium Android phone with the fastest possible performance but don’t want to go for a Samsung handset.
The Galaxy S23 series has a lot going for it, including stellar cameras and a gorgeous screen, so Samsung is probably not going to care much about this. Still, the custom chip gave the phones a unique advantage over competing phones, so this is still a bummer for them.
