After 10 years, Samsung's self-developed flagship mobile phone chips are returning to the Chinese market and joining the battle among Qualcomm, MediaTek, and Xiaomi's 3nm chips.
According to a report by Zhidx on July 10th, just last night, Samsung officially launched two new foldable smartphones, the Galaxy Z Fold7 and the Galaxy Z Flip7, at a global press conference. The latter is equipped with Samsung's first self-developed flagship mobile phone chip, the Exynos 2500, fabricated using 3nm process technology.
Galaxy Z Flip7 (left) and ▲Galaxy Z Fold7 (right)
Compared with the upgrades in the phone's exterior design, imaging capabilities, and AI experience, the most hotly debated topic in the mobile phone industry is the implementation of Samsung's Exynos 2500 in the newly launched foldable Galaxy Z Flip7. Moreover, it is highly likely that the Chinese mainland version of the device will also be equipped with this chip (assuming the official website information remains unchanged).
It should be noted that the last time Samsung used its self-developed mobile phone chip in a flagship device for the Chinese mainland market was approximately 10 years ago. In 2015, the Samsung flagship Galaxy S6 was equipped with its self-developed Exynos 7420. However, during this period, Samsung has consistently used its self-developed Exynos series of chips in mid-range devices for the Chinese mainland market, such as those in the A series.
The spotlighted Samsung Exynos 2500 was actually officially announced last year but has yet to be implemented. All of the new flagship Galaxy S25 series released earlier this year were equipped with Qualcomm chips. According to industry insiders, one of the main reasons for the delayed mass production of the Exynos 2500 is the low yield rate of Samsung's 3nm Gate-All-Around (GAA) process.
As the flagship mobile phone chips of manufacturers such as Qualcomm, MediaTek, and Xiaomi have all adopted TSMC's second-generation 3nm process, the pressure on Samsung is evident. The full implementation of the Exynos 2500 in the new foldable smartphones is undoubtedly a crucial milestone for both Samsung's mobile phone business and its semiconductor business.
In terms of pricing, the starting pre-sale price for the Chinese mainland version of the Galaxy Z Fold7 is 13,999 yuan, and for the Galaxy Z Flip7, it is 7,999 yuan.
Galaxy Z Fold7
Galaxy Z Flip7
01. Maximum Clock Speed of 3.3GHz, CPU Performance Scores Revealed, AI Computing Power of 59 TOPS
According to the information on Samsung's official website parameter page, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7's small foldable screen will be equipped with the Exynos 2500, and no other versions are indicated.
From an official parameter perspective, this chip, like Xiaomi's Xuanjie O1, features a ten-core, four-cluster architecture. The maximum frequency of the super-large core is 3.3GHz, which shows a significant difference compared to Xiaomi's 3.9GHz. The maximum frequencies of the remaining three groups of CPU cores are 2.74GHz, 2.36GHz, and 1.8GHz, respectively.
Samsung Exynos 2500
Xiaomi Xuanjie O1
In terms of process technology, the official website information states that the Exynos 2500 is fabricated using the 3nm GAA process technology. It offers better power efficiency and enhanced heat dissipation performance through Fan-Out Wafer-Level Packaging (FOWLP) while significantly reducing the chip's thickness. Additionally, Samsung has achieved further optimization through the aforementioned modifications to the CPU core structure and the implementation of an analog GNSS interface.
Just two weeks ago, the relevant benchmark scores of the Exynos 2500 were leaked on the Geekbench 6 website. Its single-core scores ranged between 2303 and 2356 points, while the multi-core scores were between 8062 and 8076 points. Compared to the Snapdragon 8 Elite equipped in Samsung's flagship Galaxy S25 Ultra, the single-core benchmark score gap was approximately 19%, and the multi-core benchmark score gap was approximately 16%.
Geekbench 6 official website benchmark scores
Based on the information about the Exynos 2500 chip on Samsung's official website, the NPU of the Exynos 2500 has an AI computing power of 59 TOPS. It is reported that the on-device AI performance has been improved by 39% compared to the previous generation Exynos 2400.
The AI-ISP of the Exynos 2500 supports a 320-megapixel resolution camera and 8K video recording at 60fps.
In terms of the GPU, the Exynos 2500 is equipped with the fourth-generation Xclipse 950 GPU, which is based on AMD's RDNA 3 architecture and supports hardware-accelerated ray tracing.
02. Can AI + Foldable Screen Deliver a Unique AI Mobile Phone Experience?
Returning to the mobile phones themselves, OPPO, vivo, Xiaomi, Honor, and Samsung have successively launched foldable flagship devices in the first half of this year. According to foreign media reports, Apple is highly likely to launch its first foldable device next year. With Apple's entry into the market, the foldable screen battle will undoubtedly enter a new phase, and the market landscape may be reshaped.
Samsung is one of the earliest manufacturers in the Android camp to develop foldable screens. Over the past 7 years since 2018, Samsung's foldable screens have evolved to the 7th generation. With the hardware form of foldable screens already relatively mature and software interaction struggling to offer new ideas, can Samsung bring some surprises to the industry and consumers?
Will AI become the biggest variable affecting products with the foldable screen form factor?
Judging from the press conference, portability, photography, and AI experience are the three key areas of upgrade for Samsung's foldable screens this time. However, in these three aspects, Samsung has basically optimized and iterated on the original design and concepts, without any revolutionary design changes or functional innovations.
Zhidx has already published relevant articles on the detailed upgrades in portability, exterior design, photography effects, and actual hands-on experience (Global First Hands-On Experience! Samsung's Foldable Galaxy Z Fold7: Incredibly Portable, AI Can Search for Everything in the Circle).
In terms of AI, which everyone is most concerned about, can the foldable screen deliver a unique AI experience? Currently, the AI experience on the foldable screen is not fundamentally different from that of straight-screen flagships. Essentially, the only function exclusive to the foldable screen is AI intelligent split-screen.
However, it is worth mentioning that in terms of AI circle search, the large screen allows AI to present search results without obstructing the content we are currently operating on. For example, when playing a game, you can circle the boss at any time to search for video guides without interrupting the game or switching applications.
In terms of AI, Samsung has emphasized the importance of multi-modal AI this time and mentioned that they will integrate intelligent agents and multi-modal capabilities into mobile phones and further enhance personalization and privacy security.
From an AI function perspective, basic functions that have been iterated on AI mobile phones for a long time, such as AI instant circle search, AI screen and object recognition, AI meeting minutes summarization, AI text rewriting, AI image generation in various styles, and AI real-time translation, have become standard features.
In the currently popular field of proactive AI, Samsung's AI can provide some travel and sightseeing suggestions based on the user's travel plan.
The small foldable Galaxy Z Flip7 has a relatively unique function in terms of AI experience. Users can fold the phone and place it on the table, then take a selfie using the rear camera and ask the AI for dressing suggestions.
Overall, the AI experience on Samsung's foldable screens is basically the same as that of straight-screen flagships, mainly iterating on the functions that have already been released, without any major new functions making their debut.
03. Conclusion: With the Flagship Chip Implemented in Foldable Screens, Can Samsung's Software-Hardware Synergy Bring New Surprises?
Objectively speaking, the full-version application of Samsung's flagship self-developed chip, the Exynos 2500, reflects Samsung's confidence in this product. In the highly competitive mobile phone market, for global mobile phone giants like Apple and Samsung, the importance of a "flawless" mobile phone chip is self-evident.
Although the Exynos 2500 still lags behind the flagship chips of Qualcomm and MediaTek in terms of CPU performance, it has almost caught up in areas such as AI, imaging, communication, and connectivity. Facing the future battle of AI mobile phones, especially the rapid development of on-device AI, the synergy between underlying software and hardware will bring unique advantages to the AI application experience. Can Samsung achieve new breakthroughs in the AI mobile phone race? We will continue to follow up.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Zhidx" (ID: zhidxcom), written by Yun Peng and edited by Xinyuan. It is published by 36Kr with authorization.