I welcome Samsung Galaxy's 'Dream Team' as Android phones need shaking up

We recently brought you news about Samsung's plan to launch a Samsung  "dream team" to compete with Apple's ever-expanding silicon ambitions, which are set to give the iPhone 14 a huge edge against its rivals.

The idea is that this dream team of tech experts will create brand new Samsung silicon chips to power the firms best Samsung Galaxy phones.

The reason for this new project being considered is that for years now the best Android phones have relied on Qualcomm chips, with Snapdragon processing units commonplace among most Android flagships, to lead the fight against iPhone in terms of chip power and efficiency.

And, while there's nothing wrong with Qualcomm's chips – they're actually very fast and efficient, and in an alternative universe they might be the best – Apple unfortunately has other ideas. Apple silicon now delivers orders of magnitude better power and efficiency than anything Android can offer.

Starting with the A14 and M1 chips, Apple has been dominating mobile processors in every single way: power, speed, battery usage, everything. Apple is top by a long way.

Using an iPhone 13 Pro Max is a dream in a way that the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra just isn't. The same goes for the M1-powered MacBooks over similar Samsung laptops.

Of course, there are caveats to this – especially if you prefer Android or Windows – but the general idea, that Apple has catapulted itself far ahead of its competitors, rings completely true on all available metrics.

Even from a purely business perspective, where controlling inputs and outputs is fundamental, Apple's decision to bring things in-house makes sense. Sorry Intel, but Apple is just better at designing chips.

And that's something I think that we're now seeing Android phone makers starting to realise. Look at how Google has transitioned to making and using its own Tensor chips in its more recent handsets. And, while Samsung has had its Exynos range of custom processors, they've never been top dog on the market, often falling short of Qualcomm Snapdragon performance, let alone competing with Apple's A-series chips.

Samsung has a dream 

So that's why Samsung's "dream team" makes a lot of sense. 

The company itself has said that it is still evaluating its options but we think it makes perfect sense to build out its own new super chips, even if it takes multiple years. It looks like Samsung has realised it needs to go back to the drawing board in terms of chips in order to create one that can truly compete with Apple silicon.

In fact, Samsung already has extensive experience with semiconductors and memory, given that Samsung Electronics produces both for various applications. Applying that knowhow to smartphones makes all the sense in the world. 

The Android smartphone market can often feel like a place for incremental, measured upgrades to handsets that five years ago would've handily beaten the iPhone. Sadly, once Apple wised up to making large-display devices, that's not longer the case.

We'll have to wait, though

Even if Samsung does decide to move forward with this plan, developing and rolling out custom chips takes a long, long time. Apple has likely been working on this strategy for a decade or more and now has its chip production down pat.

The goal for Samsung's new chips is reportedly 2025, which makes sense, but even that represents several generations of Galaxy devices that will automatically start from a position of weakness compared to the latest iPhone.

As such, it remains to be seen how inferior the Samsung Galaxy S23 flagship will be compared to the Apple iPhone 14 Pro, or indeed the Galaxy S24 and iPhone 15 Pro. If Samsung can catch up and compete, though, then for Android phone users it will be a time worth waiting.

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