Samsung Gaming Handheld Nears Reality as Driver Development Reportedly Underway

Samsung is reportedly working on a foldable gaming handheld that could change the portable gaming landscape.

Last month, a Samsung patent surfaced showing a foldable device with a compact, pocket-friendly design, suggesting the company’s potential move into the gaming handheld market.

According to leaker @Jukanlosreve, Samsung is currently developing a Linux Vulkan driver for its Exynos SoCs, specifically for the Xclipse GPU.

Vulkan is a graphics API known for its efficiency, making it ideal for low-power devices like gaming handhelds.

While Samsung has not confirmed the device yet, the Vulkan driver’s development signals significant steps toward making this concept a reality.

Although Samsung’s Exynos chips, which use AMD RDNA graphics, could bring powerful performance to handheld gaming, the company’s current focus on stabilizing its 3 nm process may delay the full potential of this project.

In the meantime, devices like the Steam Deck and ROG Ally, which already use RDNA iGPUs, continue to dominate the market.

As of now, Samsung has not yet entered the competitive handheld gaming space, but the new developments suggest they may be working toward joining the growing industry of portable gaming devices.