During Samsung's Unpacked event Qualcomm's president and chief executive officer, Cristiano Amon, took to the stage to outline some details about the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy, and while we already had a hint about the higher CPU clock, hitting 3.36GHz, making it "the fastest Snapdragon ever", it appears that it is not all about the CPU clock, as Qualcomm apparently tweaked several things for Galaxy S23 series.

“Our strong strategic partnership with Samsung is a result of our mutual commitment to innovation and delivering the world’s best smartphone experiences to consumers,” said Cristiano Amon, president and chief executive officer, Qualcomm Incorporated. “We are thrilled to have Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy power the Galaxy S23 series globally.”

“We value our long-standing strategic partnership with Qualcomm Technologies. They are at the forefront of technology innovation and differentiation, making them the partner of choice to deliver the latest cutting-edge mobile experiences for today and beyond,” said TM Roh, president and head of mobile experience business at Samsung Electronics. “Our new flagship Galaxy S23 series, powered by Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy, sets a new standard for premium mobile experiences and we can’t wait for consumers to get their hands on it.” 

According to what we could gather during the brief presentation by Cristiano Amon, and from Qualcomm's own announcement, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy not only does have a higher clocked Kryo CPU, reaching up to 3.36GHz, but also an upgraded Adreno GPU, which has been improved both in performance and power efficiency (compared to the standard Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC).

That same Adreno GPU brings hardware-accelerated ray tracing, which is also available on the standard Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. Qualcomm also outlined the Spectra Cognitive ISP, calling the Galaxy S23 the world’s first smartphone to use Snapdragon’s Cognitive ISP to enable real-time Semantic Segmentation to enhance images, as well as allow it to capture ultra low-light video, use multi-frame noise reduction, and capture 200MP photos.

The Hexagon Processor brings improved AI capabilities, with dual AI processors to support intuitive on-device AI experiences like echo cancelling and noise cancellation during calls, and uses micro tile inferencing to help accelerate complex AI models for increased AI performance.

Of course, the Qualcomm Snapdragon X70 5G Modem-RF System with 5G AI Processor provides the best possible connectivity on the market.

The biggest surprise is the Qualcomm 3D Sonic, which means that the Galaxy S23 series actually use an in-display Qualcomm 3D Sonic Sensor Gen 2, a high-end sensor that uses "acoustic-based technology that reflects the unique features of a user’s individual fingerprint".

Of course, it is left to be seen if these improvements brought by a custom-tweaked Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy will mean that the Galaxy S23 series will have an edge when compared to the competition, but at least there is always that "the phone with the fastest Snapdragon" title.