The Snapdragon 865+ was recently announced by Qualcomm. This chip is expected to power select variants of the Galaxy Note 20 and Galaxy Note 20 Ultra that will be released in a few markets like the United States.
Samsung will use its own Exynos chip elsewhere like it always has. However, reports suggest that the company will use the same Exynos 990 processor as the Galaxy S20 lineup. This contradicts earlier reports about an improved Exynos 992 chip for the Galaxy Note 20.
Samsung fans are not going to like this
It's no secret that the Exynos 990 clearly wasn't as good enough as the Snapdragon 865, the chip that powered the Galaxy S20 lineup in the US. Samsung also released the Snapdragon 865-powered variant in its home market of South Korea, a move that caused “humiliation” to the Exynos team.
The Exynos 992 was expected to bridge the performance gap to Qualcomm's chip. The 6nm chip was said to be more power-efficient as well while posting 1-3% higher performance figures than the Snapdragon 865 when compared to the Exynos 990.
That may not be the case, though. Rumors are now circulating that Samsung has decided to stick with the Exynos 990 processor for the Galaxy Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra. Given the performance gap that already existed between it and the Snapdragon 865, it's only going to get worse with the Snapdragon 865+. Qualcomm's latest chip touts a 10% increase compared to the 865 and pushes past the 3GHz CPU clock speed ceiling at 3.1GHz. The Adreno 650 GPU has also received a clock boost.
Samsung has already taken a lot of flak from customers this year because of the Exynos 990 not being up to the mark. They feel that they have received a substandard product compared to customers in markets where the Snapdragon variant is sold. Imagine how they will feel when the Exynos 990 is put up against the Snapdragon 865+.
That's being said, none of this is officially confirmed right now. Fans can continue to hold out hope that this won't be the case, even if they may not have lofty expectations from the Exynos chipset anymore.
