Samsung has historically remained reluctant to use Qualcomm chips in the Galaxy S lineup. The South Korean giant only releases Snapdragon variants of the Galaxy S phones in the US and China while the rest of the world gets Exynos models. However, it looks like 2022 will see Samsung leaning on the US chipmaker more than ever.

At its Investor Day 2021 event, Qualcomm revealed (via Digital Trends) that up to 50% of Samsung Galaxy S series phones launching in 2022 will be powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon. That means we can expect to see the Snapdragon Galaxy S22 lineup making its way to several new markets this time around. As per various tipsters, Samsung will launch the Snapdragon-powered Galaxy S22 series in Africa and Asia — in addition to the US and China. Meanwhile, Europe and the UK will reportedly get the Exynos.

The reason behind Samsung's sudden change of heart isn't immediately clear, but it might have to do with the global chip shortage and its presumed switch over to AMD for GPU, resulting in overall lower yields for Exynos for the year. Considering how Exynos-powered Galaxy S models have always lagged behind their Qualcomm counterparts, this can only be a good thing.

Earlier, the South Korean publication The Elec had reported that Samsung would use Qualcomm chips on 31 of the 64 devices it's planning to launch in 2022. Out of the remaining models, 20 will use the company's in-house Exynos chipsets, with MediaTek and Unisoc accounting for 14 and 3 models, respectively.

Samsung's Galaxy S22 lineup is reportedly coming in early 2022. As per John Prosser, the South Korean smartphone maker will hold an Unpacked event on February 8 where it would take the wraps off of the Galaxy S22, Galaxy S22+, and Galaxy S22 Ultra. The phones will be available for pre-order on launch day and start shipping from February 18. Meanwhile, the long-awaited Galaxy S21 FE is rumored to launch in January 2022.