Samsung’s tailor-made Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, dubbed “for Galaxy” and found in the superb Galaxy S23, the Galaxy Z Flip/Fold 5 and the Galaxy Tab S9 line, may turn out not to be “so” exclusive for Samsung Galaxy after all.

A piece in the XDA Developers portal states that the same “for Galaxy” Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is present in a Chinese specs-behemoth: the RedMagic 8S Pro, which goes to an extreme 24GB of RAM. This RedMagic phone was widely reported to feature a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 2, but it turns out that it’s practically identical to the “for Galaxy” variant of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. “We can confirm after getting our hands on a review unit that it's the same chipset as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy”, says the author from the XDA portal after inspecting the RedMagic 8S Pro. They’ve got a confirmation from Qualcomm on the topic, too.

How many Snapdragons are there?

So, until recently, it appeared as if there were a total of three variants of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2: the “regular” one, the “for Galaxy” variant, and, lastly, the “Plus” model (Snapdragon 8+ Gen 2). With current claims, it turns out there are just two variants since there are no specification differences between the last two.Here’s how the mystery was unveiled: by part codes. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2’s part code is SM8550-AB. The 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy chipset is SM8550-AC – notice the different suffixes. On the RedMagic 8S Pro test unit, the system identifies the SoC as SM8550-AC, virtually the same as in the Samsung Galaxy S23, the Galaxy Z Flip/Fold 5 and the Galaxy Tab S9 series.

Part code comparisons were backed up by checking clock speeds on both chipsets: RedMagic’s 8 Gen 2 perfectly matches the one branded “for Galaxy”. Namely, clock speeds go from 3.2GHz to 3.36GHz on the primary core of the CPU and an increase of 680MHz to 719MHz in the GPU in both variants.

Qualcomm: “There are no specification differences”

An XDA author reached out to Qualcomm and this is the statement that the company provided:

There are no specification differences between the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy and this new variant of Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 with 3.36GHz peak CPU speeds. Following our expanded strategic partnership announcement in July 2022, we worked closely with Samsung to uniquely customize Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy for Flip5/Fold5/Tab9.

In the same statement, Qualcomm shines a light on the naming structure of its products, stating that they want to keep it nice and simple:

Given the minor adjustment to CPU prime core frequency, we’re treating this platform as a variant of the original platform (Snapdragon 8 Gen 2). Our goal is to maintain our simplified naming structure that was introduced in November 2021 so it’s easier for OEMs and consumers to discover and choose devices powered by Snapdragon.

So, this slightly boosted variant of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 won’t be presented with a “Plus” in its name, departing from Qualcomm’s naming tradition. Nevertheless, this SoC may find its place in more devices to come. They might not be Samsung’s, but for simplicity reasons you may choose to continue calling it simply “for Galaxy”, since it’s identical to the one, found in the Galaxy S23 line, the Galaxy Z Flip/Fold 5 and Galaxy Tab S9 series.

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