Qualcomm’s survey claims buyers are three times more likely to choose a Snapdragon handset, although the firm paid for the number crunching, which makes the neutrality a bit shaky.
The same survey says 84 per cent rank Qualcomm as the leading mobile chipmaker and would pay a 16 per cent premium for its silicon. Even with the obvious bias, this still piles pressure on Samsung.
A separate poll run by PhoneArena, which is basically tech fans voting in their lunch break, pointed in the same direction. More than nine out of ten readers preferred Snapdragon over Exynos when thinking about a future Galaxy.
Both surveys differ in their methods, but each paints Exynos as the chip no one actually wants.
As phone prices rise and AI features become central to daily use, the application processor has become a key factor in whether a handset feels sharp or sluggish. Industry watchers continue to say the Galaxy S25’s smooth behaviour relied heavily on Qualcomm’s kit, which explains the nerves inside Samsung’s MX division.
One industry insider told Chosun: “The Snapdragon series is an in-house design core and has been designing custom chipsets that fit well with the Android ecosystem much better than the reference design provided by Arm”.
He added that Snapdragon-based image generation, text summary and photo editing already help Android developers, their surname said.
Structural differences also matter. Qualcomm starts with ARM’s instruction set and then builds full-custom cores within a heterogeneous architecture where CPU, GPU, NPU, memory, and sensor blocks work together.
Samsung scrapped its full custom core plan years ago and uses Arm’s standard blueprints with partial tweaks, which few engineers believe can reach Qualcomm’s level.
Benchmarks rarely capture issues such as battery drain, charging quirks, camera behaviour, audio stability or connection quality. These details shape the daily experience and could differ sharply between Snapdragon and Exynos models.
Samsung insiders confirm the Exynos 2600 will ship in the first Korean batches, although they admit that regional chip swaps have happened before.
One source said, “There have been cases where chips were installed differently in each country before, and there have been cases where there were some differences in actual smartphone performance.”