Can the Galaxy S26’s custom chip finally make Exynos great again?

Samsung fans haven’t had to worry so much about the Exynos versus Snapdragon debate this year. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite powers the Galaxy S25 series, while Exynos has stepped aside to fill in for some of Samsung’s more affordable phones, such as the FE range.

This is because the Exynos 2500 suffered some rather notable issues. First, production yield issues and delays meant Samsung had to skip the chip entirely for the Galaxy S25 series. When it finally arrived in the Galaxy Z Flip 7, the performance was pretty lackluster; in CPU performance, it was no faster than last year’s Snapdragon rival, and there were only marginal gains in graphics.

However, Samsung is gearing up to reunite Exynos and Galaxy S next year, with at least some models in the Galaxy S26 series sporting the Exynos 2600 chip. Given the chip’s troubled history, this might have Samsung fans somewhat worried, but there are reasons to be cautiously optimistic.

Samsung has yet to reveal the Exynos 2600’s full capabilities, so we’re still in the dark about most of its features. However, we do know a couple of things about the upcoming Exynos, and plenty of rumors abound as well.

First, it will be built on Samsung Foundries’ cutting-edge 2nm Gate-All-Around (GAA) process.  This could give it a not insignificant advantage over the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 in terms of power efficiency and clock performance potential, which is built on TSMC’s improved 3nm N3P FinFET-based node. Samsung itself has claimed that its next smartphones will offer “stronger performance,” a vague but crucial statement.

While comparing nodes from two different foundries is fraught with difficulties, the move to 2nm GAA is a key leap in next-gen silicon manufacturing to drive notable power, performance, and density gains. Getting there first is a notch on Samsung’s belt.

However, it’s rumored that Samsung’s 2nm yield is relatively low (reports vary between 50% and just 30%), which may erode some of its supposed cost advantage over going all-in on Qualcomm. Furthermore, TSMC’s 3nm FinFET technology is now quite mature, while Samsung’s 2nm GAA is brand new and could have familiar teething issues. TSMC’s own 2nm GAA is expected to arrive next year.

The other notable change for next year’s cheap confirmed by Samsung is “next-gen AI.” While that’s another broad statement, it’s likely that the company plans to double down on AI as a unique selling feature for its next-gen phones. Reports claim that Samsung’s new NPU will be up to six times faster than what Apple offers in the latest A19 Pro inside the iPhone 17 Pro series. It might even beat Qualcomm’s latest chip by 30% in AI crunching workloads.

However, AI comparisons are fraught with difficulties; the specific workloads, models, and quantization levels can make a huge difference. Some NPUs might be faster at image classifications, while others blast through speech tasks. I’m not placing too much stock in these specific claims. Still, the Exynos 2600 will likely be marketed as a cutting-edge chip in terms of manufacturing and AI, making it suitable to run whatever next-gen AI tools it has in store for the Galaxy S26 series.

I’m always reluctant to trust easily faked leak benchmarks — especially ones that suggest Samsung’s next cheap is about to leapfrog the competition — but we can estimate where the Exynos 2500 might end up against its mobile chipset rivals based on the state of current mobile CPU technology.

Currently, no off-the-shelf mobile CPU IP quite matches the raw performance of Qualcomm’s latest Oryon CPU core. Arm’s C1-Ultra is some 12% behind Qualcomm’s reference claims in the Dimensity 9500 we’ve tested, and closer to 25% in multi-core CPU scores. But perhaps Samsung can leverage a heavy multi-core setup and its 2nm GAA advantage to boost clock speed cores to close the gap a little more. It’s also quite possible that retail phones won’t perform quite as well as Qualcomm’s best-case claims.

In that case, the results could be close enough that customers certainly won’t perceive any difference between Eynos and Snapdragon in their everyday apps, and the benchmark results might be close enough to make any debate moot. At least as far as the CPU is concerned, graphics, wireless networking, and media capabilities will undoubtedly be different, and that’ll be enough to keep the Exynos vs Samsung debate ongoing.

Speaking of gaming, Samsung’s new Xclipse 960 GPU is rumored to surpass the graphics performance of last year’s Snapdragon 8 Elite and Apple’s A19 Pro. Some even claim it’ll beat the 8 Elite Gen 5, but I’m far more skeptical about that. Even if only the former is true, that would undoubtedly make it a potent gaming chip, even if it doesn’t quite reach the lofty heights of the latest 8 Elite Gen 5.

Combined, this would be a major improvement compared to Samsung’s last outing, which benchmarked a considerable distance behind its competitors for graphics. While we’re still a long way out from release, the Eynos 2600 can certainly turn out to be a decent performer.

But this is perhaps all besides the point. Stealing the performance crown would be a feather in Samsung’s cap, but it’s not really what the Exynos 2600 has to do to put the company’s just chip ambitions back on the map.

Rumors suggest that the Galaxy S26 Ultra will feature the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 in all markets, as might the Plus model. Meanwhile, the baseline Galaxy S26 (which might be called the S26 Pro) could be the only model to use the Exynos 2600. We’ll have to see how this plays out in global markets, but the insinuation is that Samsung expects Snapdragon to be that little bit faster for its ultra-premium customers.

This echoes Samsung’s recent foldable releases, where the more affordable Galaxy Z Flip 7 sports Exynos while the powerhouse Z Fold 7 launched with Snapdragon onboard. Likewise, Apple has long adopted a similar strategy of slightly pared-down performance for its baseline model. Samsung is clearly hedging its bets, leaving the Snapdragon to the performance crown while benefiting financially by essentially selling Exynos to itself in its entry-level model.

Still, it’s undoubtedly essential that the Exynos 2600 doesn’t look to be a distant second to the series’ flagship power this time around. If that’s the case, it’ll be enough for me and many others, particularly for a flagship phone that’ll hopefully still be priced at $799. Competitive performance at an aggressive price point will certainly help make the chip a success.

However, it’s arguably more important that the new processor avoids previous problems. Lack of supply, overheating or throttling, battery issues, and connectivity problems have plagued past Exynos models in one form or another over the years, resulting in the perception that Snapdragon is the better option. The Exynos 2600 has to shake that reputation to mark a proper return to form for Samsung.

Is that doable? Well, there’s certainly cause for optimism. Even if the Exynos 2600 doesn’t steal the performance crown, it will be hot on the heels of Qualcomm’s best, with a competitive $799 price tag and wrapped in the benefits of a cutting-edge process. This will build on Exynos’ recent success with more affordable FE models. Now, we just have to wait for the Galaxy S26 series to arrive early next year.