Galaxy S25 and S25+ are spoiled for chip choices, which one will they use?

If all goes according to the usual Galaxy Unpacked schedule, the launch of the Galaxy S25 series is only a couple of months away. Much has been said about the Galaxy S25 lineup so far, but aside from One UI 7 at SDC24, Samsung hasn't officially announced anything about its next premium flagship phones.

One big question is: What chipset will the base Galaxy S25 and the Galaxy S25+ adopt? It's almost a guarantee that the Galaxy S25 Ultra variant will use Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, which is wonderful news given its incredible capabilities. But what about the standard and Plus models?

Rumors about the choice of chipsets for the base and Plus Galaxy S flagships have never been as divided as they've been this year. But here's all we know so far.

Everything (so far) about the Galaxy S25 and S25+ chips

Some reports earlier this year said Samsung might use a MediaTek chip, namely the Dimensity 9400, for the base and Plus Galaxy S25 models.

The Dimensity 9400 chip features:

• TSMC 3nm process.
• 1 x ARM Cortex-X925 CPU core clocked at 3.63GHz.
• 3 x ARM Cortex-X4 cores.
• 4x ARM-Cortex-A720 cores.
• ARM Immortalis-G925 MC12 GPU.
• LPDDR5X memory support.
• MediaTek NPU 890 for Generative and Agentic AI.

Other rumors say there will be no MediaTek chip, but Samsung will equip the base and Plus Galaxy S25 in most markets with the Exynos 2500 SoC, developed in-house by Samsung.

The Exynos 2500 chip has not been officially announced, and leaks are a bit murky, hinting at two different configurations.

• Possible Exynos 2500 specifications rumored in July.
• Possible Exynos 2500 specs emerged in October.

Some reports even suggested that the base and Plus models could use both the MediaTek Dimensity 9400 and Exynos 2500 chips, with some markets getting the MediaTek solution and others the more familiar Exynos chip brand.

Finally, the most recent rumors suggest that Samsung will do the exact opposite and won't use a MediaTek or an Exynos solution. Instead, Samsung will supposedly employ the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip across the entire series worldwide. The Snapdragon 8 Elite chip is extremely powerful.

Snapdragon 8 Elite specifications include:

• TSMC 3nm process node.
• New Oryon CPU core. Maximum frequency of 4.32GHz.
• 24MB total cache.
• New NPU with 45% improved performance. Dual-core AI processor.
• Qualcomm Adreno GPU with 40% improved performance and power efficiency.

Which rumor has more traction as of this writing?

We're happy to say that, as of this writing, rumors are leaning heavily on the latter possibility. Reports support the theory that the entire Galaxy S25 series, from the base and Plus models to the Ultra, will be powered by Qualcomm's incredible Snapdragon 8 Elite chip in every market.

Of course, nothing is set in stone until Samsung says it is, but at the moment, things are looking good for fans of the series. From what we've seen so far, the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip is the best solution of the three.

We will update this article with new Galaxy S25 and S25+ chipset information as it becomes available.