Samsung Galaxy S23 reportedly set for early February release with more Snapdragon chips

Ben Schoon | Nov 4 2022 - 7:52 am PT

As the year moves towards its close, new details are coming out regarding the Galaxy S23 series, including a potential release date and apparent confirmation of which models will be using Snapdragon chips.

Galaxy S23 release date potentially revealed

According to a report from Chosun, Samsung is aiming for a launch event for the Galaxy S23 series in early February. Specifically, the launch would take place in “the first week” of the month, with a release date for the Galaxy S23 series to follow a bit later in the month.

The report further claims that Samsung will host an event to launch the devices in San Francisco.

This would mark the first in-person launch event for Samsung since 2020, when the company launched the Galaxy S20 series and Galaxy Z Flip at an event in San Francisco just weeks ahead of COVID-19’s biggest impacts. In the time since, Samsung has held virtual launches for the Galaxy Z Fold 2, Galaxy S21, Galaxy Z Fold 3/Flip 3, Galaxy S22, and Galaxy Z Fold 4/Flip 4.

Of course, this timeline wouldn’t come as much of a surprise. The Galaxy S22 series was launched on February 9, 2022, with a subsequent release date on February 25. A source familiar with Samsung’s plans “expects” a release date for the Galaxy S23 to fall around February 17.

Snapdragon chips reign supreme on Galaxy S23

Meanwhile, it’s looking more and more likely that Samsung won’t be using Exynos in a meaningful capacity on the Galaxy S23 series.

Rumors first started hitting earlier this year that Samsung would double down on Qualcomm chips starting next year, backed up by a deal between Samsung and Qualcomm that was formally announced back in July. This comes after years of Exynos chips in Samsung flagships being notorious for performance and quality issues in regions where they were used in place of Snapdragon chips.

In a transcript of Qualcomm’s Q4 earnings call highlighted by GSMArena, Qualcomm CFO Akash Palkhiwala said that Qualcomm’s share of chipset share in the Galaxy S23 series will go up to “global” from the 75% share that was seen on the Galaxy S22 series.

So from a March quarter perspective, you’re right, the benefit from the Samsung launch for the new phone would be in the in kind of the second half of the March quarter. So it comes in towards the end of the quarter, but that will be an advantage, whereas our share from 75% in G S22 goes up to global share in G S23

There’s still room in this statement for Samsung to opt for Exynos in some regions, but it seems pretty clear that the company will mostly be using Qualcomm Snapdragon chips, specifically the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.