A new Galaxy S26 leak suggests that Samsung plans to include the Exynos chip series in some markets and for certain models.
This leak comes from well-known tipster @Jukanlosreve, who posted on X that “The Exynos 2600 is definitely back and it will be used in the S26.” They go on to state that the “chip volume is so limited that it’ll likely be similar to the Exynos 990 situation.”
The Exynos 2600 is definitely back and it will be used in the S26.But the chip volume is so limited that it’ll likely be similar to the Exynos 990 situation.I’m not sure if SF2 is actually any good.March 30, 2025
The Exynos 990 situation mentioned here refers to when Samsung released the Galaxy S20 and the Galaxy Note 20 series in 2020. All versions of these phones outside the US, Canada and China used the Exynos 990 chip rather than the Snapdragon 865, an unfortunate situation because the Exynos offered lacklustre performance compared to the Snapdragon.
It is worth noting that @Jukanlosreve also made these comments back in December, stating that “ Samsung aims to “significantly” equip the Galaxy S26 with Exynos chips next year.
Samsung releasing the Galaxy S26 with different chip options would appear to be something of a backward step. Prior to 2023, Samsung launched its flagship phones with either an Exynos chip or a Snapdragon one, depending on the country where you bought the phone. However, that changed with the Galaxy S23, which universally launched with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.
Many considered this change to be permanent, however, Samsung then released the Galaxy S24 with the Exynos 2400 in certain markets. If this wasn’t bad enough, Samsung flipped again with the Galaxy S25 series, which launched with the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip worldwide in all models.
This makes gauging what this could mean for the Galaxy S26 rather complicated. If it is similar to the Exynos 990 situation, then it would mean that very few markets would see Galaxy S26 models with the next generation of the Snapdragon chip, instead receiving a potentially weaker alternative. Even if Samsung did decide to give the Galaxy S26 Ultra Snapdragon chips worldwide, this would still mean a two-tier situation with better and worse versions of the base and Plus models.
This is assuming that Samsung’s Exynos chips remain behind equivalent Snapdragon silicon for the coming generation. The last generation of Exynos chips in Samsung phones was encouragingly high-quality, which we found when we tested the Galaxy S24’s Exynos 2400 chip vs the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, with similar performance levels in some areas.
For the time being, we can only wait for the official announcement regarding the Galaxy S26, which is anticipated for release in early 2026. Regardless of the chips included, we would expect the phone to remain one of the best Android devices, if not one of the best phones in general, especially if rumors about its enhanced battery as well as improved cameras turn out to be accurate.
