The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 has just landed to compete against the A17 Bionic and Mediatek 9300, and we already have to talk about something more serious. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, and even more interesting, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5, about which we still did not know anything for sure, the future SoC for Samsung Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S26, appear. Will TSMC or Samsung manufacture them and on which lithographic node? Will there be a significant performance leap?
The truth is that there are some surprises, and what has been leaked from Revegnus is very interesting, as it leaves the door open to several options, at least, for the newest of them. The best part is that, for the first time, there are two brands competing for a node, and given the time remaining, Qualcomm is testing both options.
Samsung Galaxy S25 with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 4: no doubts with TSMC N3E
8G4, 8G4 FG = TSMC N3E
8G5 N3P/8G5 FG SF2 or 8G5 N3P/8G5 FG N2
Obviously, Qualcomm’s SoC will reach more devices, but Samsung’s SoC will undoubtedly be the best of them, as happens every year. Therefore, the leaker makes two distinctions when referring to the SoC, something that is repeated for both Gen 4 and Gen 5:
Normal (no specific name, only the SoC’s name)
FG -> For Galaxy
This clarification is key to understanding the war that is being waged right now, which will have a winner in a few months for 2026. First, let’s start with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, the direct successor to the current Gen 3.
Here, the leaker offers no doubts. Both the normal version for any company and the version that will be included in most Western countries (FG) will be manufactured by TSMC on their N3E node.
To recall, the N3E is an evolution compared to the current and normal N3, but it doesn’t come from it; it comes from its N5 sibling, which is being used by AMD right now. The differences between N3 and N3E are small: -2% in power consumption, +3% in performance, +0.045x in logical area, -4.5% in total area, but curiously, it is less dense in logic, a -0.1x, which also implies a minimal improvement in SRAM cells of 0.002 µm².
As we can see, the improvements are minimal, but what will have a real and tangible improvement is the production volume and the final price, where we know it will be much better, but the actual leaked amount is unknown.
Samsung Galaxy S26 with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 5: Samsung enters the fight
There are two options here that Qualcomm is said to be considering at the moment with their internal SoC tests: it has been leaked that the Americans have Samsung wafers with the SF3P and SF2P processes.
Therefore, the still up-in-the-air options for the coming years after discarding other nodes are:
Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 normal with N3P, while the version for Samsung uses their SF2 process.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 normal with TSMC’s N3P, while the version for Samsung uses TSMC’s best node that year, the N2 with GAA transistors.
Why these options? Well, because Samsung has pressured Qualcomm for their Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 version that the SoC must have GAA transistors, either with their SF2 node (an improved and evolved 3nm NanoSheet process) or the new and more expensive TSMC N2, which is confirmed to be facing delays again.
Either way, the real performance leap will occur in the Samsung Galaxy S26, because the N3P included in the rest of the smartphones with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 is just another evolution from the N5, only slightly superior to the N3E that the S25 will have. The advantage will be with the SF2 or the N2, true next-generation nodes.
The leak about who will manufacture the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 (Samsung Galaxy S25) and Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 (Samsung Galaxy S26) first appeared on El Chapuzas Informático.
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