Samsung Galaxy S23 series confirmed to launch with more powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset than Xiaomi 13 or Xiaomi 13 Pro

The Galaxy S23 series has stopped by TENAA in China, roughly two weeks after the FCC published documentation for the Galaxy S23, Galaxy S23 Plus and the Galaxy S23 Ultra. While the FCC revealed a few details about Samsung's next flagship smartphones, TENAA has outlined that the trio will use a different Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SKU than those shipping in the likes of the Xiaomi 13, Xiaomi 13 Pro and Motorola Moto X40. As 9to5Google discusses, this different Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 revision could outperform the regular Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.

For context, several leakers asserted as much in November, which we discussed at the time. According to TENAA, the Galaxy S23 series relies on 'SM8550-AC', a version of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 with higher clock speeds than the SoC that debuted in November. At launch, Qualcomm outlined that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 contained the following CPU cores and clock speeds:

• 1x ARM Cortex-X3 - 3.2 GHz
• 2x ARM Cortex-A715 - 2.8 GHz
• 2x ARM Cortex-A710 - 2.8 GHz
• 3x ARM Cortex-A510 - 2.0 GHz

Conversely, TENAA reveals that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 powering the Galaxy S23 series tops out at 3.36 GHz, although its other clusters remain at 2.8 GHz and 2.0 GHz, respectively. Hence, it seems that Qualcomm is offering a version of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 with a 400 MHz overclocked prime core. Typically, Qualcomm reserves 'AC' suffixes for its 'Plus' branded chipsets, which may not be the case for this generation.

Either way, the decision to offer Samsung a higher-binned part than its competitors may explain why Qualcomm secured 100% of Galaxy S23 series market share. It remains to be seen what plans Qualcomm has for the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 2 too, which will inevitably arrive near the middle of 2023.

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