Samsung and MediaTek partnership may soon extend to new flagship smartphones

Samsung has been using MediaTek chipsets in its budget and mid-range smartphones for a while now, including last year's Galaxy A15 (curr. $152 on Amazon). That changed this year with the release of the Galaxy Tab S tablets though, which swapped Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for MediaTek's Dimensity 9300+.

On the face of it, little separates the two chipsets in performance terms. With that being said, adopting MediaTek chipsets for the Galaxy Tab S10 Plus and Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra may have helped Samsung reduce production costs. Ultimately, neither MediaTek or Qualcomm officially publish how much they charge OEMs for chipsets.

However, there have been suggestions that the Dimensity 9400 is roughly 18% cheaper per unit than the Snapdragon 8 Elite, albeit both chips are claimed to be upwards of 20% more expensive than their predecessors. To that end, there have been suggestions that the price of the Snapdragon 8 Elite is why Samsung has decided against using its newer M14 AMOLED panel in the Galaxy S25 Ultra.

Reportedly, Samsung's cost-cutting will continue if Qualcomm puts up prices of its next flagship mobile chipset relative to the Snapdragon 8 Elite. Based on new reports, this could extend further to camera hardware next time around. Alternatively, Samsung is said to be considering using MediaTek Dimensity chipsets in the Galaxy S26 series instead, which may negate its desire for further cost management.