Per latest reports, the whole Galaxy S26 lineup will utilize Exynos 2600, Samsung’s in-house chipset.
What happened?
Image by Samsung
For its three last iterations, the Galaxy S Ultra came exclusively with a Snapdragon chip under the hood:
The above was valid even if the rest of the Galaxy S models came with an Exynos chipset, depending on the market: the Ultra offered top-tier performance in all places across the world. See, Samsung sometimes equips its non-Ultra models in recent years with Exynos silicon. Though capable on its own, it’s often considered to be an inferior chip because it lags behind Snapdragon in terms of raw power.Up until now, everybody thought the Galaxy S26 Ultra would be exclusively powered by the upcoming Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 (a.k.a Snapdragon 8 Gen 5). Now, a report by The Korea Herald paints a different picture: every single model in the Galaxy S26 Ultra is to come with Exynos 2600 inside – yes, even the Galaxy S26 Ultra.
Is that possible? And why would Samsung do it?
There are four months until January 2026, when Samsung’s Galaxy S26 models are expected, so you should take any information with a grain of salt at the moment.
However, the Exynos 2600 domination across the whole S26 lineup could be logical to an extent, and not just because of the moniker conjunction.
The Exynos 2600 chipset is set to be built on Samsung Foundry’s 2 nm process, marking a significant step forward for the company’s chip ambitions. Current top-tier chips (like the Snapdragon 8 Elite) are built on a 3 nm process, and the lower the number, the more advanced the chip is (generally speaking).
Exynos processors have traditionally fallen short of their Snapdragon rivals in both raw performance and thermal efficiency, but expectations remain that Samsung could eventually deliver a breakthrough comparable to the leap Apple achieved with its own silicon.
Exynos 2600 on Geekbench. | Image credit – Geekbench
Recently, Geekbench results showed the Exynos 2600 reaching 3,309 in single-core and 11,256 in multi-core tests. This puts it ahead of the Snapdragon 8 Elite in both categories, while edging close to the iPhone 16 Pro‘s single-core score and surpassing it in multi-core performance.
What’s more, these Geekbench results showed the Exynos coming really close to Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2.
Also, the Exynos 2600 could feature a new thermal system called the heat path block to boost stability and efficiency.
Another notable change comes with graphics. Reports suggest a former Huawei GPU executive is contributing to the development of Samsung’s first in-house GPU for the Exynos 2600. Previous Exynos chips leaned on AMD-based designs, but this shift signals a new approach. While the debut version may not immediately surpass its competitors, it could lay the foundation for rapid improvement in future generations.
The logical step
Yes, if you have your own in-house chipset that surpasses the Snapdragon 8 Elite, it’s only natural to use it and profit, instead of paying for third-party components.
The real question is: will Samsung be able to convince everybody, not just tech-savvy users like you and me, that the Exynos 2600 chipset is actually great? That won’t be easy, as Snapdragon’s reputation is kind of hard to eclipse.
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