Samsung says it has delayed the official launch of its flagship Exynos 2200 system on a chip, and that it will now be unveiled alongside the Galaxy S22 series at its Unpacked event next month. We still don’t have confirmation, but we expect that the Exynos 2200 will be the mainstay chip of the international S22 models.
“We are planning to unveil the new application processor at the time of launching a new Samsung smartphone. There are no problems with the AP’s production and performance,” a Samsung spokesperson was quoted as saying by Business Korea in response to earlier reports of delays.
A delayed chip or a canceled chip?
Samsung was supposed to reveal the Exynos 2200 system on a chip earlier this week. However, that event never happened and the announcement tweet by the official Samsung Semiconductor (@SamsungDSGlobal) Twitter account was quietly deleted. With the Exynos 2200 being a no-show, rumors intensified that it had been delayed, or possibly nixed. With a global semiconductor shortage still looming, it was tough to rule out the cancellation rumor in its entirety. Some analysts claimed that the Galaxy S22 portfolio would only come with Qualcomm chips inside, with no Exynos variants on the table.
There was also chatter that Samsung had decided to decouple the Exynos 2200 from its Galaxy S22 plans, and might fit it inside other phones. That means it would only offer Galaxy S22 trims powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip in all regions. For the unaware, Samsung has traditionally sold its flagship phones in both Qualcomm and Exynos flavors with a strict market demarcation in place.
The stakes are higher than ever
Not everyone is pleased with the Exynos models, though, and rightfully so. Over the years, customers have reported slower performance and heating issues with the units powered by Samsung’s in-house chip. In fact, Google’s Tensor processor inside the Pixel 6 series — which was made with Samsung’s help and closely resembles the Exynos 2100 — was found to suffer from the same weaknesses as Samsung’s processor in AnandTech’s detailed performance analysis.
But it appears that Samsung might also be shedding the ghosts of Exynos 2100 performance woes. “The new GPU is expected to resolve the problems of the Exynos 2100,” the Samsung spokesperson added. The Exynos 2200 is heavily anticipated, particularly because it comes armed with an AMD GPU based on the RDNA2 architecture. The graphics prowess boost might finally push the Exynos 2200 into the same league as Qualcomm’s Adreno-backed Snapdragon processors and Apple’s Bionic A-series silicon.
