Exynos 2200 launch teased as Galaxy S22 confusion continues
If there's one word that can be used to describe the Galaxy S22 as we know it through rumors, it would be "confusing." Although most rumors seem to agree on some of the key aspects of the three phones, they have so far turned out to be a mixed bag of disappointment and hope. Even more confusing, however, is the situation with Samsung's own Exynos 2200 vis-a-vis the Snapdragon 898. At least one part of the uncertainty might finally be put to rest when Samsung announces its graphics-focused silicon next week.
Exynos 2200: AMD rDNA
The future of the Exynos brand and product line has been a bit cloudy in the past years, especially as the performance gap between equivalent Snapdragon processors continued to widen. When almost all hope was lost, Samsung and AMD made a pact that would bring the latter's graphics IP to the ARM-based Systems-on-Chip (SoCs), technology that is more traditionally associated with desktop and laptop graphics. That was back in 2019, and it would take more than two years for anything to actually come out of it.
Samsung Exynos'Instagram account made a post that could be taken as a teaser for what has been believed to be called the Exynos 2200. It talks about what entertainment will look like in the future after gaming graphics evolved from the simple arcade games of the distant past. But there's also that rather ominous part about moving to a new home on November 19, hinting at some big organizational changes.
Of course, the post didn't touch on anything about the Exynos 2200 itself, other than its focus on graphics. Previous leaks have put a standard tri-cluster core configuration of one Cortex-X2, three Cortex-A710, and four Cortex-A510 cores, some of the clocked at higher speeds than a recently leaked Snapdragon 898. Early benchmark scores, however, seem all over the place and still behind Apple's silicon.
There have been leaks and even teasers from Samsung that alluded to Exynos putting a heavy emphasis on ray tracing, one of the biggest trends in graphics tech these days. It will definitely be a big boost for mobile graphics, but its utility outside of gaming might be a bit limited. The Exynos 2200's CPU performance will still be more critical, and the jury's still out on whether it will fare better than Qualcomm's upcoming standard-bearer.
Galaxy S22: The Great Divide
The Exynos 2200's graphics chops will be for naught if it doesn't end up in devices that people can actually get their hands on. That's where the confusion lies when it comes to the Galaxy S22 series since there is a disagreement on whether Samsung's chip will even be present inside its next flagships.
It is, of course, inconceivable that Samsung wouldn't use its own Exynos chips in the Galaxy S22, especially in South Korea, where it already got a lot of flak for doing that last year with the Galaxy S21. It seems that, instead, Samsung will be aiming for a very limited launch of Exynos-toting Galaxy S22 models, specifically in South Korea and Europe.
Europe gets exynos
— Max Weinbach (@MaxWinebach) November 9, 2021
The problem with this split is that not all Samsung fans are fans of its Exynos chips. Those in Europe, in particular, feel shortchanged for always being given Exynos models only, especially during the period when Exynos lagged way behind the Snapdragon in performance. On the other hand, if the Exynos 2200 ends up being out of this world, other markets will definitely feel left out in turn.
Of course, that all depends on how this much-hyped Exynos 2200 will turn out, and not just in graphics performance. There are only so many ways that more advanced graphics can be used on mobile devices, and unless Samsung and AMD have figured out a way to take advantage of that for general purpose processing, Qualcomm might still have the edge in overall performance.