Samsung is expected to launch Exynos 2600-powered Galaxy S26 smartphones in South Korea and Europe.
Samsung's Exynos 2600 is likely to boast a 6+3+1 architecture
Photo Credit: Samsung
Samsung's Exynos 2600 chip will arrive soon as the company's next flagship mobile processor. It will succeed the Exynos 2500 and is expected to power the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S26 series of smartphones. The move would mark a shift in Samsung's strategy, as the company could finally use in-house chips after relying on third-party chipmakers like Qualcomm for its recent flagship models. The Exynos 2600 is built by Samsung Foundry and is likely to offer improved performance over its predecessor, and it could also help Samsung cut down on production costs.
In a YouTube video on Wednesday, Samsung officially teased the Exynos 2600. The 30-second video was shared with a 'coming soon' tag, and it describes the chipset as 'refined at the core', suggesting system-level upgrades. Samsung also claims that the Exynos 2600 is 'optimised at every level'.
The Exynos 2600 chip is expected to debut with the Samsung Galaxy S26, Galaxy S26+ and Galaxy S26 Ultra models in early next year. If the company's previous models are any indication, countries like the US, Japan, and China could see the launch of the Galaxy S26 trio powered by Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipsets. Markets including South Korea and Europe, in contrast, will get the Exynos 2600 variants.
While the detailed technical specifications of the Exynos 2600 are still under wraps, previous leaks have claimed that the Exynos 2600 is built on Samsung Foundry's 2nm process. It is said to come with improved AI features to compete with offerings from Qualcomm and Apple. The upcoming chipset bearing model number S5E9965 earlier popped up on the Geekbench website with a 3,047 single core score and a 10,025 multi core score.
The Exynos 2600 is likely to feature a 6+3+1 architecture, with six cores clocked at 2.46GHz and three cores running at 2.96 GHz. The prime core might have a peak clock speed of 3.55GHz.
Samsung used the Snapdragon 8 Elite for the Galaxy chipset in the Galaxy S25 series in all markets. The Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24+ arrived with Exynos 2400 SoC in select markets. The adoption of in-house Exynos chipsets will help the South Korean brand to reduce its reliance on Qualcomm. It may also help the company to revive its foundry and System LSI division.
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