Here’s why Samsung launched the Galaxy S22 series with Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 in India

Source: Nick Sutrich / Android Central

It’s reliable: the Galaxy S22 series can be powered by means of Qualcomm’s newest 4nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 in India. A couple of leaks hinted as a lot prior to the release, and Samsung showed the identical in a blog post.

This is clearly an enormous deal, as a result of Samsung best launched Exynos variants of its telephones in the nation over the closing seven years. The one example the place it deviated from the trail was once with the 5G variant of the Galaxy S20 FE, which introduced the Snapdragon 865. Samsung to begin with launched the S20 FE sans 5G connectivity, with that fashion working the Exynos 990. But in March 2021, the Korean producer rolled out the 5G fashion with Qualcomm’s chipset, and that generated an extra wave of passion in the instrument.

Samsung is the best Android producer to make use of a dual-sourcing technique for its flagships, and it continues to take action as a result of the fashion has labored specifically neatly for the logo. It reserves the Qualcomm model for North America and Korea, however different world markets get the Exynos-powered fashion. However, this is converting with the Galaxy S22 series, with Samsung introducing the Qualcomm-powered variant in extra markets.

Samsung is not ditching the dual-sourcing fashion; it is simply being extra strategic with its Qualcomm positioning.

In addition to India, Samsung is introducing the Qualcomm-based Galaxy S22 in the UAE (we’re going to must stay up for availability to kick off in different markets to gauge what areas are getting the Qualcomm model). That mentioned, Samsung will proceed to provide the Exynos 2200-powered Galaxy S22 in maximum world areas — together with the UK, Germany, France, and the remainder of Europe.

It’s comprehensible why Samsung is making the trade in make a selection nations; those are markets with a predominantly tech-savvy userbase, and they do not essentially generate a large number of gross sales quantity for Samsung in the high-end class. While India accounts for over 80 million phone gross sales a yr, the top class section (over $600) accounts for a tiny portion.

In 2021, it made up simply 4% of the general marketplace, and that’s the reason after an enormous enlargement yr for top class telephones that noticed this class double in marketplace percentage. So we are taking a look at an addressable marketplace of underneath 3 million, with Apple dominating gross sales by means of some margin. It’s a an identical scenario in the UAE, and whilst top class telephones have a better percentage, the addressable marketplace for Samsung in the high-end section is underneath 2.5 million.

As such, Samsung does not stand to lose a lot by means of bringing the Qualcomm-based variations of its newest flagships to India and the UAE. If anything else, it will see a tight uptick in gross sales figures from closing yr’s S21 series, specifically making an allowance for those markets at all times had a robust userbase for the Galaxy Note series. The Galaxy S22 Ultra is basically the successor to the Note 20 Ultra, and the indisputable fact that it’s working the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 makes it one in every of the very best Android telephones of the yr and the glaring improve trail for Note 20 homeowners in the area.

What’s attention-grabbing to me is that Samsung did not release the Snapdragon 888-powered model of the Galaxy S21 FE in those nations. During a product briefing forward of its release, Samsung pros pointed to sure comments for the Exynos 2100-based S21 series as the major reason why for proceeding with the Exynos chip, and so far as gross sales figures move, the S21 FE has a considerably upper attainable than the S22 series.

Having used all of Samsung’s Exynos-powered flagships beginning with the Galaxy S6 series, the defining trait with the Exynos series over the closing seven years has been the loss of sustained efficiency. Samsung’s bold plans to create a customized CPU that might tackle Qualcomm and Apple failed, and the Exynos 990 in the Galaxy S20 was once a low level for the series — it had an inclination to warmth up, so it needed to be repeatedly throttled. That’s why Samsung began the usage of off-the-shelf Arm cores beginning with the Exynos 2100.

I to find it ironic that Samsung is switching up its technique in a yr the place it in any case addressed a large number of the underlying problems with its Exynos designs. The Exynos 2200 is the first design to consequence from Samsung’s partnership with AMD, and it brings a large number of thrilling options to the desk, together with ray tracing and variable price shading. Qualcomm had the distinct edge in this space over the closing decade, however the Exynos 2200 looks as if a robust challenger in a large number of spaces.

I used to be focused on getting my fingers on the Exynos 2200-based Galaxy S22 Ultra, however I suppose I’ll must accept the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 model as an alternative. All kidding apart despite the fact that, this can be a good move from Samsung to place the Qualcomm-based model of its flagships in those nations. It is not going to result in a noticeable uptick in world gross sales for the Galaxy S series, however Samsung stands to realize a large number of goodwill, and it will possibly at all times use extra of that.