Lanh Nguyen / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Our chances of getting an Exynos 2500-powered Galaxy S25 feel increasingly shaky as reports instead focus on other plans for the chip.
- Samsung may instead embrace its foldables as a platform to show off the Exynos 2500, with the Flip 7 running the processor.
- This would mark a departure for Samsung’s foldable lineup, though the Fold 7 may stick to Snapdragon chips.
Samsung may be under a month away from announcing its 2025 flagship Galaxy S25 series, but major questions about the hardware continue to go unresolved, and probably the biggest point of contention there concerns the silicon that will ultimately power these next-gen handsets. As we wait to get confirmation of the choices Samsung ultimately makes, we’re seeing growing support for a theory that’s actually focused on a different 2025 Samsung smartphone, but one that could still help us make sense of the expectations surrounding the Galaxy S25 launch.
We’re talking about the fate of Samsung’s Exynos 2500 chip, and for months now, voices across the industry have been debating the likelihood of that processor ending up in next year’s Galaxy phones. While historically, Samsung likes to split its Galaxy S flagship production between Exynos models for international and home markets, and Qualcomm Snapdragon chips in the US, we’ve heard a lot of concern about Exynos 2500 yields, questioning whether the chip might even be a practical option for the S25, and debating the likelihood that Samsung could just go all-in on Snapdragon this time around.
Recently, that conversation’s taken a turn towards looking at other Samsung phones that might be planning to embrace the Exynos 2500, and earlier this month we started hearing that Samsung could be considering using the 2500 for next year’s Galaxy Z Flip 7. Unlike how S-series phones have been straddling the border between Exynos and Snapdragon, existing Z-series devices have been soundly in the Snapdragon camp.
This week, we hear some renewed support for the notion of an Exynos-powered Flip 7, as The Elec cites “a high-ranking Samsung Electronics official” relaying this information with “a very confident tone.”
The idea behind this possible shift seems to be that Samsung is enthusiastic about employing the Exynos 2500 in some of the company’s prominent smartphones next year, but that lingering concerns over fabrication are causing the company to hold back from committing to the chip for an undertaking as large as the Galaxy S25. Foldables, meanwhile, represent a much smaller portion of Samsung’s smartphone portfolio, and especially with what we’ve heard about the company dialing back 2025 foldables targets, placing the 2500 in a phone like the Flip 7 could be a lower-stakes way to still get some spotlight on Samsung’s latest silicon.
For the moment, we haven’t heard anything about possible Exynos 2500 plans for Samsung’s other upcoming foldable, the Galaxy Z Fold 7.