Samsung's partnership with Qualcomm brought us a series of fantastic Galaxy S23 flagship phones earlier this year, all powered by the same Snapdragon chipset worldwide. And it wasn't just that. This Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 version employed by the Galaxy S23 series – and now the Galaxy Z Fold 5, the Galaxy Z Flip 5, and Tab S9 lineups – is labeled “for Galaxy,” which means it boasts higher CPU and GPU clock rates. But it turns out that these performance advantages are no longer exclusive to Samsung's devices.
RedMagic, a sub-brand of Nubia, which in turn is a wholly-owned subsidiary of ZTE, announced the RedMagic 8S Pro some weeks ago. If you haven't heard of it, it doesn't really matter. But what matters is that the RedMagic 8S Pro seems to be rocking the same “for Galaxy” chip as Samsung's latest flagships.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip inside the RedMagic 8S Pro has the same SM8550-AC part code as the “for Galaxy” chip rather than the SM8550-AB part code used by the standard version of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. And as confirmed by XDA-Developers, the RedMagic 8S Pro's chip has the same CPU and GPU frequencies as the “for Galaxy” chip, i.e., 3.36GHz on the primary CPU core (up from 3.2GHz) and 719MHz on the GPU (up from 680MHz).
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Is there anything else special about the “for Galaxy” designation?
The RedMagic 8S Pro is the first mobile device not manufactured by Samsung to boast the overclocked Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset. Evidently, RedMagic doesn't call it “for Galaxy,” but specifications are similar. Now the question is whether the Qualcomm chip used by Samsung still has some unique characteristics.
Actually, it might. Qualcomm confirmed RedMagic uses a new variation of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 that isn't exclusive to Samsung. But take note that the chipmaker said “There are no specification differences between Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 ‘for Galaxy' and this new variant […].” It still referred to the chip as a “new variant”. So, is this overclocked chip identical to the “for Galaxy” SoC in every way imaginable or not? Is “for Galaxy” just a marketing label now? Or is there more to it?
Well, it's hard to be sure, but here's the part that might delineate this new SD 8 Gen 2 variant from the one used by Samsung. Even though clock rates are the same, Qualcomm says it “worked closely with Samsung to uniquely customize Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 ‘for Galaxy' for Flip5/Fold5/Tab S9. For example, Samsung provided their proprietary camera IP for us to integrate into the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy.”
By the sound of it, the “for Galaxy” Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip still has some unique tricks up its sleeve. And, going out on a limb, it's possible that this deeper integration of the proprietary camera IP has allowed Samsung to bring so many improvements to the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5 camera experience without changing much of the camera hardware.
