Samsung Galaxy S26 Series Could Feature Exynos 2600 With Faster NPU Performance Than Apple's A19 Pro Chip

Samsung's Galaxy S26 series is expected to launch early next year with upgrades over the Galaxy S25 series. A new report suggests that Samsung could use its latest in-house Exynos chipset on its upcoming flagship smartphone lineup. The purported Exynos 2600 SoC is expected to outperform Apple's and Qualcomm's latest chips, while offering improved graphical performance and neural processing unit (NPU) performance over the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 SoC. Meanwhile, an early Geekbench listing of Exynos 2600 places the chip behind current rivals in CPU performance.

Exynos 2600-Powered Samsung Galaxy S26 Series Likely in the Works

As per a report (in Korean) by Korea Economic Daily, the Samsung Galaxy S26 series will be equipped with the Exynos 2600 chipset. Citing industry sources, the publication states that the company has begun mass production of the lineup. The Exynos 2600 is expected to be installed in approximately 50 percent of the Galaxy S26 units.

As per the current strategy, markets like the US, Japan, and China will reportedly receive Galaxy S26 models powered by Qualcomm chipsets, while regions such as South Korea and Europe will get the Exynos variants.

Samsung used Exynos chips in its older Galaxy S series smartphones, but the company shifted to Qualcomm in recent years, with the Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S25 series dropping Exynos entirely. The return of the Exynos chipset with the Galaxy S26 series is expected to deliver improved chip performance and better foundry yields.

The Exynos 2600 is made in-house by Samsung Foundry, whereas Apple and Qualcomm rely on TSMC. Expanding Exynos use could help Samsung cut costs and boost its struggling foundry and system LSI units.

The South Korean report suggests that Exynos 2600 outperforms top rivals in internal tests. Its NPU is reportedly over six times faster than Apple's A19 Pro, with 14 percent better CPU multi core performance and up to 75 percent higher GPU performance.

The Exynos 2600's NPU performance is said to be about 30 percent faster compared to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 SoC. The GPU is reportedly up to 29 percent better than Qualcomm's flagship chipset.

The Exynos 2600 is reportedly built based on Samsung Foundry's 2nm process. While most global Galaxy S26 models will reportedly launch with Exynos, North American versions of the phones will feature Qualcomm chips to meet local certification needs. Samsung reportedly focused on improving AI performance while developing the Exynos 2600.

Exynos 2600 CPU Performance Revealed via Geekbench

Meanwhile, the Exynos 2600 was spotted on the Geekbench database with model number S5E9965. The new benchmark listing suggests a 3,047 single-core score and a 10,025 multi core score. The listing reveals a CPU setup with 6+3+1 architecture, with six cores capped at 2.46GHz. Three cores are clocked at 2.96 GHz, while the prime core is capped at 3.55 GHz.

Geekbench scores hint at a potential setback for the Exynos 2600 in terms of CPU performance. Despite rumours about the superior performance, early benchmark results place the chip behind current rivals. In comparison, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 scored 3,675 in single-core and 11,096 in multi core tests. Last year's Snapdragon 8 Elite had 3,186 points in single-core testing and 10,042 points in multi core testing.