Higher Snapdragon 8 Elite costs mean pricier Galaxy S25

Samsung Galaxy S25 series could be pricier than its predecessor. The upcoming flagship lineup will use the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, which is expected to be more expensive than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy used in the S24 Ultra.

Weibo tipster DCS claimed a price hike in the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset. This is due to TSMC’s cutting-edge 3nm process technology. MediaTek’s upcoming Dimensity 9400 flagship SoC could also be more pricey than its predecessor.

Last year, Qualcomm indicated that the 2024 Snapdragon chip would be more expensive. The latest leak aligns with the company’s indication, denoting an increase of around 20% in the pricing of the next Snapdragon due to a switch to TSMC’s 3nm process.

Samsung Foundry is in crisis due to unstable 3nm yields. Exynos 2500 could not be used in the Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus coming next year. The Snapdragon 8 Elite is said to cost $190, while the Dimensity 9400 could cost $155.

The leaker added that this was just an approximate pricing, which may be different from the official costs. Also, Samsung would get “for Galaxy” of Snapdragon 8 Elite, which may have a different pricing strategy as per their multi-year agreement.

Anyways, this would reduce Samsung’s negotiation power with Qualcomm due to complete reliance. The same happened in 2023 with the Galaxy S23 series. The South Korean tech giant solely used Snapdragon chipsets.

Qualcomm will be using its own developed Oryon CPU in the next Snapdragon. The chipset will offer significantly improved CPU and GPU performance over the 8 Gen 3. We’ve got an idea of what’s coming in recent Geekbench listings.