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Samsung is gearing up to launch the Galaxy S23 FE with its in-house Exynos 2200 chipset, at least in some markets. It’s the same processor that powered the Galaxy S22 series flagships in Europe and a few other regions last year. However, it appears the Korean firm has optimized the chip to give it a new lease on life. The Exynos 2200-powered Galaxy S23 FE is massively outperforming the Galaxy S22 in benchmark runs.
While the Galaxy S23 FE is not yet official, the popular benchmarking platform Geekbench already has countless entries from the phone. The folks over at GalaxyClub compiled those entries to observe its performance. They found that the Exynos version of the upcoming handset (model number SM-S711B) has consistently achieved single-core scores above 1600 on the platform. Its multi-core scores on Geekbench regularly exceed 4100.
On the other hand, the Galaxy S22 powered by the same Exynos processor (SM-S901B) struggled to reach a single-core score of 1500. It has only one score above that, with some tests yielding scores as low as 900. The phone’s multi-score Geekbench tests also didn’t return scores above 3500. That’s a huge consistent performance gap between two devices featuring the same chipset.
This is despite no change in the CPU or GPU clock speeds. Moreover, both models were tested with 8GB of RAM and Android 13-based software. So how is this happening? If we’re to take a guess, this should mean a more optimized Exynos 2200 inside the Galaxy S23 FE than the Galaxy S22. Since Samsung didn’t launch a new flagship Exynos processor last year, it may have spent time improving the older chip.
Software optimizations may be helping the Galaxy S23 FE
It’s worth noting that the US versions of the Galaxy S23 FE (SM-F711U) and the Galaxy S22 (SM-S901U), both powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, also showed similar performance gaps in benchmark runs on Geekbench. So there may be more to the story. The upcoming Fan Edition (FE) phone may have a better cooling mechanism, allowing the chipset to run at its full potential without overheating.
Thermal management has been one of the biggest issues with Exynos processors in recent years, leading to poor performance and higher power consumption than competing Snapdragon solutions. Samsung was heavily criticized for this. This is why it shipped the Galaxy S23 series with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 globally. However, Exynos chips are now making a return to Galaxy flagships. After the Galaxy S23 FE, the Galaxy S24 series will also use the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and Exynos 2400 SoCs in different markets. Time will tell whether this decision backfires for Samsung.
