Yes, the ‘Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy’ in the Galaxy S23 is manufactured by TSMC

Ben Schoon | Feb 3 2023 - 12:45 pm PT

Samsung’s Galaxy S23 series is the first flagship line from the company that uses Qualcomm Snapdragon chips globally, and the good news is that “Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy” is manufactured by TSMC too.

In 2022, Qualcomm launched the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 which was a plenty-powerful chipset, but it ended up held back by Samsung. That chip was manufactured using Samsung’s foundry, which has a become notorious for churning out chips that are less efficient than chips produced by TSMC. That was proven beyond the shadow of a doubt later in 2022, when the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 took essentially the same design and switched the manufacturer to TSMC, only to have a much more efficient chip that was significantly faster across the board when it showed up in both the OnePlus 10T and Samsung’s foldables.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, unsurprisingly, stuck with TSMC and has put out an impressive showing in the limited number of devices we’ve seen thus far. And in the Galaxy S23, Samsung and Qualcomm collaborated on an upgraded version of that chip called the “Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy.” That special version has a faster CPU and GPU.

Ahead of launch, though, rumors were swirling around that the “Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy” wouldn’t be manufactured by TSMC. Rather, those rumors claimed the chip would be manufactured by Samsung.

To an extent, that move would have made sense. Samsung ditches Exynos for a special version of Qualcomm’s latest chip that’s made by Samsung itself. A win-win for both brands, even though it might have been a loss for users.

But, thankfully, that’s not what happened. Speaking to 9to5Google this week, Qualcomm confirmed that, yes, “Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy” is manufactured by TSMC.

This really doesn’t come as a surprise, especially with Samsung touting speed and power so much with the Galaxy S23 series, but it’s still good to put those rumors to rest.

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