Samsung could ditch its own memory chips in some Galaxy S25 units

Samsung’s factories manufacture many key components for its own devices. Galaxy smartphones typically feature in-house processors, displays, modems, and RAM. However, over the past year, its semiconductor and memory divisions have been dealing with multiple issues that have had consequences. The company was unable to use Exynos SoCs in the Galaxy S25 series, and something similar could happen with its memory chips.

Samsung is one of the leading memory chip manufacturers in the world. That said, lately, the company’s products have lagged behind its most direct competitors in some key parameters, such as energy efficiency. In smartphones, energy consumption is especially key since batteries and available physical space are limited. Apparently, Samsung’s memory chips generate more heat than the company would like, so it will turn to an external supplier for its next-gen flagship phones.

Micron tipped to be the main supplier of memory chips for the Galaxy S25 series

According to tipster Jukanlosreve, Micron will be the primary DRAM chip supplier for the Galaxy S25 series. The X/Twitter post says the main reason for the decision could be the overheating issue of Samsung’s DRAM chips manufactured on its 1b process. 1b is the latest memory chip manufacturing technology used by major suppliers. Currently, the industry considers Micron’s 1b process to be superior to Samsung’s, the post adds.

Samsung has experienced similar issues in the past during chipset production. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip’s overheating is blamed on Samsung Foundry’s 4nm wafers. Qualcomm fixed the problem by moving the production of all of its upcoming flagship SoCs, like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1+, to TSMC’s factories. Exynos modems manufactured by Samsung also tend to generate more heat than Qualcomm’s.

Samsung will still use its DRAM chips in some units

So, the Galaxy S25 series will primarily feature Micron memory chips. Even so, Samsung will still use its own DRAMs, but only in a small number of units. Hopefully, the gap between the two components won’t be so big that it impacts performance. It wouldn’t be fair to Galaxy phone fans to have to deal with problematic devices. The Galaxy S25 Ultra could exclusively use Micron’s DRAM as it is the most expensive and premium model.