Samsung’s Galaxy S23 might get a unique Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip

Samsung might be getting a special version of Qualcomm’s recently announced Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip and it might mean no more Exynos for Europeans.

We’d always expected Samsung to use Qualcomm’s latest and greatest chip when the Galaxy S23 lineup arrives next year, but leaker Ice Universe suggests that there might be a surprise or two around the corner. Starting with the specific version of Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 that Samsung will use.

Ice Universe believes that the chip will be a special high-frequency version, exclusive to Samsung. A screenshot shared by the leaker shows what appears to be a Galaxy S23 Ultra running a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 with a clock speed of 3.36GHz. The chip that everyone else will get runs at 3.2GHz, suggesting something is afoot here.

Breaking！
The best moment for European users has arrived.
The European version of the Samsung Galaxy S23 series is confirmed to use the Snapdragon 8 Gen2, and it is a high-frequency version exclusive to Samsung. Please enjoy it. pic.twitter.com/w6DqCdH30b

— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) November 16, 2022

Whether that chip will be notably quicker is another matter, but perhaps the most interesting part of Ice Universe’s claims is that this chip is for the European market. Historically, European Samsung flagships have shipped with Exynos chips inside, meaning this would be a first for the lineup.

It isn’t yet clear whether the special high-speed chip will be unique to the Europeans or if those in the United States will also get it, but time will tell. It seems unlikely that Samsung would use two versions of the same chip in the same phone – but that didn’t stop inputting two different chips in those same phones for years, so your guess is as good as ours at this point.