Samsung Galaxy S25 Series Could Reportedly Arrive With Exynos 2500 Chip, as Samsung Attempts to Improve Yield

Samsung Galaxy S25 series could be equipped with an Exynos 2500 chipset after all, according to a South Korean news report that contradicts claims that the firm plans to exclusively use Qualcomm's next-generation Snapdragon mobile processor for its upcoming flagship smartphones. The firm is reportedly working on improving the yield of its chipset, with only a few months to go before the successors to this year's Galaxy S24 models are expected to be unveiled. Samsung has also been working on a new Exynos chip to power its upcoming Galaxy Watch 7 series.

According to a ZDNet Korea report (in Korean), Samsung is "making an all-out effort" to develop its own chipset for the Samsung Galaxy S25 series as part of a project called 'Solomon', which will require the company to improve the yield of the next-generation Exynos 2500 processor, which has reportedly remained low for the past few months.

Citing industry sources, the publication states Exynos 2500 yields remained under 20 percent as of Q2 2024, and the figure was in the single digits in the preceding quarter. In order to begin mass producing its Exynos 2500 chip, Samsung will have to improve the yield to 60 percent (or higher) by September or October, according to the report.

The Exynos 2500 isn't the only advanced chip being developed by the South Korean tech company. According to the report, a next-generation Exynos W1000 chip is being developed as part of Samsung's 'Sapphire' project, and it is expected to arrive as the successor to the dual core Exynos W930 that powers the Galaxy Watch 6 model.

Earlier this month, TF International Securities market analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted that Samsung would equip all models on the Galaxy S25 series of smartphones with a Snapdragon chipset, due to low Exynos 2500 yields.

This year, the standard Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24+ models arrived with an Exynos 2400 chipset (except in Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Taiwan, and the US) while the Galaxy S24 Ultra features a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip in all markets. It remains to be seen whether Samsung equips all models on its Galaxy S25 series with Snapdragon chips — just like the Galaxy S23 series that was launched last year.