What you need to know
- New Geekbench listings indicate that the Galaxy S23 FE will draw its power from a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 in the U.S. and an Exynos 2200 chipset in other markets.
- Samsung's Exynos 2200 SoC was previously criticized for poor energy efficiency compared to its Snapdragon counterpart, but the company may have addressed this concern.
- The phone is expected to make its debut in the third quarter of this year as a cheaper version of Samsung's latest flagship series.
A few Geekbench listings of the rumored Galaxy S23 FE have surfaced online, and as you'd expect from benchmarking results, the documents spill the beans on the phone's chipset details.
As spotted by MySmartPrice, the cheaper version of the latest and greatest Samsung phones appears to be powered by either a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor or an Exynos 2200 SoC, depending on the market where it will ship. This contradicts a previous rumor that the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE would rely entirely on an Exynos processor.
One Geekbench listing reveals a smartphone carrying the model number SM-711U1. This means we may be looking at the U.S. variant of the phone, with Qualcomm's 2021 premium chipset ticking inside, as evidenced by the motherboard's codename: "taro." The device that was tested also ran Android 13.
Meanwhile, the Geekbench result for the phone's non-U.S. version suggests it is powered by an Exynos 2200 chipset, similar to the processor used in the Galaxy S22 in some markets. While Samsung's in-house processor was chastised in the past for its underwhelming energy efficiency, recent reports said that the South Korean tech giant has made significant improvements to the Exynos 2200 to address heating issues.
In addition to these Geekbench listings, Samsung's website now has support pages for both the U.S. and global versions of the phone. The pages are currently lacking in details, but they are a strong indication that the Galaxy S23 FE exists and is awaiting release.
While there is no firm date for the release of Samsung's next budget phone, rumor has it that a third-quarter launch is most likely.
