Samsung Galaxy S26 Series Tipped to Do Away With Snapdragon Chips; May Use Exynos 2600 SoC

Samsung Galaxy S25 series was launched in January and it came with a noticeable shift in terms of its processor. While the South Korean tech conglomerate preferred to use its in-house Exynos-branded chips in the Galaxy S24 and previous S series models, it adopted Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite in the entire Galaxy S25 lineup for all markets. However, an industry note suggests that Samsung may switch back to its proprietary Exynos 2600 for the purported Galaxy S26 series.

Exynos SoC in Samsung Galaxy S26 Series

Tipster @Jukanlosreve shared an industry note in a post on X (formerly Twitter) detailing Samsung's plan of powering the purported Galaxy S26 series with the Exynos 2600 processor. However, that may only be applicable to certain markets. The chipset is currently claimed to have a low yield, due to which it is likely to be used only in the phones offered in the European market.

Citing an industry source, the note states that in the Application Processor (AP) for the Galaxy S26, Qualcomm's Snapdragon shows a “clear” performance advantage over Exynos, although exactly which chip was tested remains unknown.

It is said that Samsung initially designed the Exynos 2500 processor for the Galaxy S25 series but dropped it in favour of the flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite and the chip was never released. It was attributed to the company's failure in delivering a better yield, following which it opted for Qualcomm's chipset in its current flagship lineup. The tipster speculates that this reported shift from Snapdragon back to Exynos is due to System LSI, Samsung Semiconductor's R&D business unit, reporting losses of around $400 million (roughly Rs. 3,374 crore) because of this single decision.

However, this is not the first time that Samsung's potential plans of going back to Exynos have surfaced. In February, a South Korean publication pointed out that Samsung Electronics witnessed success with its development of the Exynos 2600 SoC, achieving a 30 percent yield. At the time, it was reported that if the company can achieve a 60 percent yield with its 2nm chipset, its mass production will commence.