Samsung gaming phone rumored again with Apple-rivaling GPU

A while back it was rumored that Samsung was building a gaming smartphone and now that claim has popped up again, but from a different source.

This time it’s I ice universe making the claim on Weibo (a Chinese social network). That’s a source with a good track record, so it might well be true, but other than saying that the phone is in the works the only information they provide is that the use of an in-house Samsung GPU (graphics processing unit) hasn’t been ruled out.

Currently, Samsung makes its own Exynos chipsets, but they use ARM GPUs, so this gaming phone could be where Samsung first tests its own GPU.

That could be worth getting excited about, because a few months ago an analyst suggested that Samsung’s GPU could “put it on par with Apple”, according to SamMobile. Right now Apple’s phones consistently outperform Samsung’s in benchmarks, so this could level the playing field.

A power-packed handset

And using the GPU in a gaming phone makes sense, since such a handset is going to put a real focus on power, as it will need to run demanding games and rival the likes of the Razer Phone 2 and Asus ROG Phone.

A gaming handset is also likely to be niche enough that placing an untested GPU in it won’t be too much of a gamble, so it’s a believable claim. Though note that even the source of this leak only says that the use of Samsung’s own GPU is being considered, not that it’s definitely happening.

As for the gaming phone itself, we really don’t know anything else about it, but it could have some tough competition even within Samsung’s own range, since the Samsung Galaxy S10 and foldable Samsung Galaxy X are probably launching before too long.