이 기사는 2022년 04월 12일 07시34분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

Samsung Electronics plans to make a chipset dedicated to its premium Galaxy devices following the game performance throttling scandal that has engulfed the South Korean tech giant since the launch of its latest S22 series.

Roh Tae-moon, president of Samsung Electronics’ mobile division, said during a town hall meeting earlier this month that the company would create a custom chipset for its Galaxy devices.

The decision is similar to that of Apple. The US smartphone maker started making its own application processors for iPhones in 2020 in the wake of throttling and overheating issues.

Samsung is reportedly weighing up whether to develop a new custom chip on its own or to collaborate with other firms such as Qualcomm and MediaTek.

The move by Samsung comes after a controversy over its so-called Game Optimizing Service (GOS), which was designed to fine-tune system performance during gaming to prevent battery overheating.

Samsung first pre-installed GOS on its Galaxy S7 released in 2016 and users were able to turn it off if they wanted. However, an option to disable the feature was not provided on the latest S22 series, prompting strong complaints from mobile gaming users.

The company’s mobile devices are equipped with application processors – the brains of smartphones – designed by Qualcomm, MediaTek and Samsung’s chip design division. Its flagship Galaxy series have adopted either Qualcomm’s Snapdragon or Samsung’s Exynos.

Samsung has known about the overheating problem associated with its smartphones and chipsets embedded in them since its release of the S21 series, which were equipped with Snapdragon 888 or Exynos 2100. But it went ahead with the launch of its latest S22 lineup earlier this year without a process to identify the cause of the overheating. The G22 series are equipped with Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 or Exynos 2200.

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 embedded in the G22 series were produced through Samsung’s 4-nano process. However, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus, the US tech giant’s upcoming chipset that will be unveiled next month, will use TSMC’s 4-nano process node.

If the new chipset made by TSMC solves the overheating issue, this could lead Samsung to lose ground. But even if the overheating remains with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus, Samsung will hardly be able to be free from responsibility because its Exynos 2200 is also suspected to cause the overheating issue. (Reporting by Hyun-ji Sohn)