Samsung launches most of its flagship phones with two different chipsets for different markets — Snapdragon for the USA and China, Exynos for the rest of the world. Its most recent flagships, the Galaxy S21 series, also feature the Snapdragon 888 and Exynos 2100 SoCs depending on the market. So if you’re wondering if the company will do the same with its new foldables, no it won’t. Regardless of where you live, both the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 will come equipped with the Snapdragon 888 SoC. That said, this isn’t surprising as the previous Z series foldables also came in a Snapdragon-only variant when it comes to the processor. But it still settles the question of “what powers the new Samsung foldables in my region?”. And most people would be happy to know that there’s no Exynos chip in either of these phones. There’s enough evidence of Samsung’s Exynos chips underperforming competing Snapdragon solutions in the past. Granted, the company has improved its game significantly with its latest Exynos 2100 SoC. But it’s not easy to recover from a damaged reputation. Samsung knows people trust Snapdragon chips more than its Exynos solutions. So it doesn’t want to give potential customers a reason not to buy its new foldables. After all, it’s pitching the Galaxy Z Fold 3 as the ultimate mobile device for power users. And what’s better than the latest flagship Qualcomm processor at the heart of it?
It’s the Snapdragon 888 though, not the 888+
Unfortunately, we are only getting the Snapdragon 888 and not the newer and slightly more powerful Snapdragon 888+. The latter essentially improves the clock speed and AI processing but it’s always better to have better. Perhaps the 888+ came too late for Samsung to use it instead of the regular 888. Qualcomm launched the Snapdragon 888+ late in June when Samsung probably had already started the production of its new foldables. Anyways, Samsung is unlikely to continue with this strategy for its next-gen Galaxy S flagships though. In all probability, the Galaxy S22 series will use Exynos and Snapdragon processors depending on the market. Time will tell if the company will do the same with its future foldables.
