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Samsung is reportedly gearing up to launch its first 3nm Exynos chip next year, but it isn’t what everyone expected. According to the Korean media, the company will release a 3nm wearable chipset in mid-2024. It will power the Galaxy Watch 7 series. The firm may follow up with a 3nm smartphone processor later in the year or in early 2025.
Samsung is working on a 3nm chip for the Galaxy Watch 7
The 3nm semiconductor era began in mid-2022, with Samsung Foundry leading the charge. The Korean behemoth first started manufacturing chips using the next-gen process node. TSMC followed the suit a few months later. However, while Samsung has yet to make a 3nm smartphone chip, its Taiwanese rival has already ticked that box. It made Apple’s A17 Pro chip for the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Rumors are that both foundries are struggling to improve their 3nm yields, slowing down the progress. Qualcomm, MediaTek, and Samsung are all sticking to the 4nm tech for their next-gen flagship smartphone processors, namely the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, Dimensity 9300, and Exynos 2400. That said, Samsung Foundry is expected to produce 3nm chips for mobile devices next year, with TSMC increasing its capacity too.
However, no one expected Samsung to make a 3nm wearable processor before a smartphone chip. The said wearable chip will debut with the Galaxy Watch 7 series, the Korean media reports. The new watches should arrive in July or August next year. We don’t yet have a name for the SoC. The previous two Exynos processors for Samsung watches were called Exynos W920 and Exynos W930, so we might get an Exynos W940 next year.
The new chip should bring substantial power and performance gains
Samsung may have a reason to not call it Exynos W940, though. The Exynos W930, which powered this year’s Galaxy Watch 6 series, is a minor upgrade over the previous chip. It only brings a faster CPU and some power optimizations over the Exynos W920, which was introduced with the Galaxy Watch 4 in 2021 and also powered the Galaxy Watch 5 last year. Both of those chips are 5nm solutions.
The jump to the 3nm tech, on the other hand, should mean massive power and performance gains. It should be a generational leap in the true sense. Samsung might feel that the Exynos W940 branding won’t do justice to that upgrade. We will have to wait for more details to emerge before we can paint a clearer picture. Rumors about the Galaxy Watch 7 should start becoming more frequent once Samsung is done and dusted with the Galaxy S24 series.