The Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7 are right around the corner. The new foldables are likely to go official sometime in July, and this year, Samsung is shaking things up, at least when it comes to processor choice.

For the first time ever, Samsung will not be launching both its Fold and Flip flagships exclusively with a Snapdragon chip. That's only going to be true for the Galaxy Z Fold 7. The Galaxy Z Flip 7 will be powered by the Exynos 2500, likely in all markets, even the USA.

It's not just the fact that we're getting a Galaxy Z Flip with an Exynos chipset. Samsung is also breaking tradition as far as the introduction of new Exynos chips goes. That always happens in the first half of the year with the latest Galaxy S flagship. That Samsung is introducing its next-gen Exynos chip with a foldable is notable, though it's a story for another time.

Exynos' reputation hasn't exactly been stellar over the last half a decade or so. Samsung has made a few too many missteps over the years, starting in 2018 with the Galaxy S9's Exynos 9810. Even in the rare cases where an Exynos chip didn't have any major flaws, Qualcomm's Snapdragon equivalent still outperformed it in both speed and efficiency.

As a result, Samsung fans have become almost allergic to the idea of getting the Exynos variant of a flagship Galaxy smartphone. And, for some of them, that's where Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold and Galaxy Z Flip lineups became so important: Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip smartphones have only used Snapdragon chips since they arrived on the scene.

But that changes with the Galaxy Z Flip 7.

Not everyone is thrilled about this, and I get it. Qualcomm's Snapdragon chips have understandably gained a stellar reputation in recent years. And the latest chip, the Snapdragon 8 Elite, is a beast. But that is exactly why I think it's a good thing that Samsung isn't using the Snapdragon 8 Elite in the Galaxy Z Flip 7.

Let's face it: this chip runs hot. Really hot. Thanks to their big vapor cooling chambers, the Galaxy S25, S25+, and S25 Ultra manage to keep temperatures under control, at least when not running graphically intensive games. But the Galaxy S25 Edge? As we have mentioned countless times before, including in our full review, the Edge struggles with heat because of its ultra-thin chassis.

And if there's one thing we know about the Galaxy Z Flip smartphones, it's that they are thin. That's been the case since day one. The Flip isn't like the Fold – it doesn't turn into a mini tablet. It's a regular phone that folds in half, which means internal space is at a premium. Even with sizable cooling chambers, Flip smartphones have always run hotter than their Fold counterparts.

Until now, Samsung has managed to maintain a good balance between performance and thermals. But I don't think that's possible with the Snapdragon 8 Elite. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 will also be incredibly thin, yes. But let's not forget that it will also have bigger screens than previous Folds, which gives Samsung a lot more room to spread out internal components and avoid the throttling issues seen on Flip smartphones and on the Galaxy S25 Edge.

Will the Exynos 2500 be good? I don't know yet. But if the Exynos 2400 is anything to go by, then I have reason to be optimistic. As long as its performance gap with the Snapdragon 8 Elite isn't too large and efficiency is at least as good as the Exynos 2400, I think Samsung has made the right decision.