Samsung's next Ultra flagship may have a heating problem and Qualcomm is racing against time to fix it. The Galaxy S27 Ultra is reportedly struggling with thermal throttling, potentially pushing Samsung to ditch Snapdragon for its own Exynos chipset.
Galaxy S27 Ultra’s Snapdragon Chipset Reportedly Struggles With Heat
The report from the Korean website Seoul Economic Daily and its sources says the Galaxy S27 Ultra's testing temperature repeatedly exceeded safe internal thresholds. As a result, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 processor inside throttled aggressively to prevent damage.
This is concerning, given that the Galaxy S27 Ultra is expected to be marketed around demanding on-device AI operations and gaming, both of which could cause the phone to heat up and undermine the premium user experience.
The mass-production window is approaching for the Galaxy S27 series as the designs have been finalised. Therefore, Samsung has reportedly given Qualcomm until mid-October to resolve issues with thermal instability.
On the other hand, engineers on both sides are working on refining the processor, but the required thermal standards have not yet been met.
Speaking about the thermal issues, an industry official said – "It is not as though Qualcomm's processor has been ruled out for the Galaxy S27 Ultra... But if the overheating issue is never resolved, we have to think about alternatives for mass production".
If Qualcomm misses the deadline, Samsung has a solution – swapping Snapdragon for its in-house Exynos 2700 processor. For those unaware, Exynos 2700 is rumoured to be used in the standard and the new Galaxy S27 Pro smartphones.
The Exynos 2700 is built on Samsung's advanced 2 nm process, and if the plan with Snapdragon fails, it will mark the first time in five years that an Exynos chip has powered an Ultra-tier flagship. Besides, unlike the Exynos 2600, the Exynos 2700's yield has been strong.
Nothing is set in stone as of writing this, as the outcome depends on how Qualcomm will handle this. Perhaps the Galaxy S27 Ultra could still end up with the 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6.
That would require Qualcomm to underclock it or ask Samsung to add a beefier internal vapour chamber. Either way, it should be interesting to see what the future holds for the series, so stay tuned.
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