There have long been rumors that Samsung plans to use Qualcomm's new silicon in its Galaxy S23 lineup, which will debut next month. According to one report, the move is now official.

9to5Google (opens in new tab) reports that the new S23 lineup will feature a Qualcomm chipset branded "Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy." This is based on documents seen by 9to5Google, which we have yet to see. However, leaked full spec sheets for the Samsung Galaxy S23 and S23 Plus that appeared earlier this week include the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, as does the leaked spec sheet for the Galaxy S23 Ultra that appeared today (January 19).

This Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 in the Galaxy S23 appears to be the overclocked version of the Gen 2 we have long expected. This custom chipset has a CPU clock speed of 3.36 GHz, up from 3.2 GHz on the base version of the SoC silicon; the GPU clock speed has also been raised from 680 Hz to 719 MHz, giving the new Samsung phone a performance advantage over other Android phones, at least On paper, they appear to have a performance advantage.

With the disappearance of Samsung's Exynos processor, the customized Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, the A16 Bionic in the iPhone 14 Pro, Google's Tensor G2 chipset in the Google Pixel 7 Pro, and other Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2-powered Android phones, including the upcoming OnePlus 11, will go up against the silicon that drives other top smartphones.

The good news is that the new overclocked Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy seems to far outperform the Google Tensor G2 chip; in a Geekbench 5 benchmark of the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra conducted in October reportedly scored 1,521 for single-core performance and 4,689 for multi-core performance. This crushed the Pixel 7 Pro's (open in new tab) official numbers of 1,028 and 3,004, respectively.

This is not a big surprise. Google's Tensor chip fell behind Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 in benchmark numbers. The chip is designed to excel in AI and machine learning tasks, thanks to its Tensor Processing Unit (TPU).

The question is whether Samsung's overclocking chipset can outperform other Android phones. Unfortunately, early indications are that raw performance may not improve; alleged benchmarks for the OnePlus 11 released in December showed alleged Geekbench 5 benchmarks of 1,493 for single-core performance and 5,112 for multi-core performance, showing that OnePlus is uniquely demonstrated that it can sustain itself.

Since this initial report, the Geekbench browser has released the official OnePlus 11 benchmark (open in new tab), and the results are similar: the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2-powered device scored 1,339 for single-core performance and 4, 797 for multi-core performance. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 recorded a single-core performance of 1,339 and multi-core performance of 4, 797. While this is a noticeable drop from the initial numbers, it shows a pattern where the stock Gen 2 of the OnePlus 11 outperforms the supposedly overclocked Gen 2 of the S23 Ultra in multi-core performance.

That leaves Apple's A16 Bionic chip as the last chipset to beat the alleged performance of Qualcomm's new chipset. And Apple's silicon appears to continue to hold an advantage over the best that Qualcomm has to offer, at least in benchmark results.

The iPhone 14 Pro's current Geekbench browser numbers (open in new tab) are 1,874 for single-core performance and 5,382 for multi-core performance. This is a significant difference from even the S23 Ultra's best benchmark numbers (open in new tab) compiled, which are 1,521 for single-core performance and 4,694 for multi-core performance.

The system-on-chip in the Galaxy S23 appears to be able to hold its own against other Android phones, at least based on leaked benchmarks, but the perennial performance gap between the top-end iPhone and Samsung's flagship seems likely to remain. (Possible exception: we ran our own Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 benchmark on the reference device and it outperformed the iPhone 14 with A15 Bionic in many tests.) This may have some impact on people deciding whether to get Samsung's new Galaxy S23 phone or the current iPhone.

However, the S23 numbers will not be official until Samsung's phone is released and we get a chance to benchmark it ourselves. Furthermore, there will be other features to consider, such as the 200MP camera that is said to be included in the Galaxy S23 Ultra and the note-taking and drawing capabilities of the S Pen that comes with Samsung's top model, the S23. In other words, we can expect an interesting Galaxy S23 Ultra vs. iPhone 14 Pro Max showdown when Samsung's new model arrives next month, and a customized Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 could further pique interest.

The Galaxy S23 will debut at the Galaxy Unpacked event on February 1, so we should see it within two weeks. Samsung has already begun taking reservations for the Galaxy S23, and you can get up to $100 credit by reserving a pre-order slot now.