Samsung will release another pair of foldable phones this summer, the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Flip 4. The former has appeared in various leaks already, as leakers usually focus on the most exciting unreleased flagships. But the new Flip will also be a flagship handset, and it’s showing up in more leaks of its own. A new benchmark leak proves that the Galaxy Z Flip 4 will feature a brand new Qualcomm processor, which is great news for Samsung fans who might still be worried about the Galaxy S22’s throttling scandal.
Throttling shouldn’t be a problem on the new foldables
Samsung slowed the Galaxy S22’s performance with a built-in app to avoid overheating and preserve battery life. Early buyers soon discovered the practice, which turned into a massive scandal for the Korean company, especially in its home country.
It’s primarily the Exynos versions of the Galaxy S22 that had to suffer as Samsung downgraded the performance. Samsung fixed the throttling issue, allowing buyers to bypass the performance restrictions. The company issued software fixes in Korea and Europe, where it sold Exynos variants.
But in the months that followed, we learned that it might not be only Samsung’s fault. The current chip designs that Android vendors use might be prone to overheating if proper cooling isn’t in place.
Separately, Samsung vowed to create new chips for its flagship devices, but such an endeavor would take time. And leaks soon emerged claiming that the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Flip 4 will feature new processors.
The two handsets will get Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus chip, a leaker said. This implied that Samsung is already steering away from the Exynos 2200 System-on-Chip (SoC) in the Galaxy S22. But also from the regular Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC that powers Galaxy S22 versions.
Galaxy Z Flip 4 processor leak
Ice Universe is the leaker who made these claims a few weeks ago. After saying that he could confirm the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Flip 4 will get the TSMC-made new Qualcomm processor, he’s back with a benchmark score for the chip.
If the identifiers in the Geekbench 5 benchmark above are interpreted correctly, then we’re looking at a test for the Galaxy Z Flip 4. Moreover, the benchmark lists the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus processor. The SoC is reportedly built on TSMC’s 4nm process.
The leaker says that Samsung fans can “breathe a sigh of relief,” as the processor’s power consumption performance is better than Samsung’s 4nm chips.
The Galaxy Z Flip 4’s processor scored 1277 and 3642 in these benchmark tests. The results are in line with the Galaxy S22 performance. But the throttling scandal also led to Geekbench removing the Galaxy S22 and other devices from its listing. That’s because Samsung cheated in those tests.
That’s to say that the best way to test the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Flip 4 processor performance is to wait for the phones to hit stores.
What’s certain is the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Flip 4 won’t outperform last year’s iPhone processor. Therefore, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus SoC won’t outperform the A16 Bionic coming to this year’s iPhone 14 Pro phones.
Speculation aside, Qualcomm will soon introduce the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 version. That’s when we’ll know more about the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Flip 4’s processor.
