Samsung plans to expand the Galaxy S27 family next year with a new Pro model. Leaks indicate the phone will sit below the S27 Ultra, featuring flagship specs but in a more compact form factor. But the S27 Pro may fall short of the Ultra in one key area. It could skip Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 chipset in favor of its less powerful sibling.
According to import-export records spotted by Notebookcheck, Samsung will use three different chipsets across its entire Galaxy S27 lineup. The base S27 and S27+ will seemingly use the company's in-house Exynos 2700 SoC. The S27 Pro will use a Snapdragon chipset, but it won't be the one you are hoping for.
As per the database, the S27 Pro will supposedly use Qualcomm's SM8950 chip, which the company markets as the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6. It sits just below the new Extreme variant in Qualcomm’s lineup. Samsung apparently plans to use the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 exclusively in the S27 Ultra.
All four Galaxy S27 models will sport 12GB RAM, with 256GB of starting storage. The listing also confirms their screen sizes, with the Galaxy S27 sporting a 6.3-inch panel while its Plus sibling will house a 6.7-inch panel. The S27 Pro will slot between the two with a 6.5-inch OLED screen, and the S27 Ultra will have the largest display at 6.9 inches.
What the Galaxy S27 Pro could miss without the Extreme chip
Both Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 chips are fabricated on TSMC's latest 2nm node for improved power efficiency. They also use the same 8-core Oryon CPUs, with the main differences being in their GPU and AI cores.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 sports a more powerful Adreno 850 GPU with AI Matrix Cores and 18MB of high-performance memory. That allows it to deliver a claimed 44% faster graphics performance than its predecessor, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.
The 8 Elite's Gen 6 GPU uses an Adreno 845 GPU without the Matrix Cores and high-performance memory. Still, it promises to deliver a 35% uplift in graphics performance over its predecessor.
Qualcomm promises a 33% improvement in AI performance per watt for its new Extreme chip, compared with a 20% improvement for the standard model.
The Extreme chip also doubles the maximum frame rates for 8K and 4K slow-motion recording. It can record 8K at up to 60 fps and 4K slow motion at up to 240 fps, compared with 30 fps and 120 fps, respectively, on the standard chip. The Extreme chip also supports the APV codec.
While the Extreme chip is clearly superior, Samsung is unlikely to make use of all its capabilities. For the majority of day-to-day tasks, including running heavy apps and games, both Galaxy S27 variants should perform about the same.