Update, Monday Mar 10, 2025: This article has been updated with further details on Samsung’s benchmarks that will define success for the Exynos 2600.
Samsung lauds the Galaxy S handsets as some of the most powerful smartphones on the planet. But that power comes at a cost. Balancing the need for top-tier performance against the cost of the silicon in the heart of the handsets has seen the South Korean company working alongside Qualcomm and its Snapdragon chipsets alongside Samsung Foundry’s Exynos brand. What does that mean for the upcoming Galaxy S26?
Samsung Galaxy S26 And Exynos
The current S25 family all run Snapdragon hardware, but will Qualcomm’s exclusivity continue, or can Samsung bring Exynos back for the Galaxy S26? Writing for FN News, Kim Jun-seok and Im Su-bin report on the company’s hopes for the Exynos 2600 chipset.
One point stands out and could significantly impact the Galaxy S26 family in 2026; the increased yield of the Exynos 2600 compared to the current Exynos 2500. The lower yield on the latter forced Samsung’s hand to make the Glaaxy S25 range exclusively Qualcomm-powered. There has been a mix of Eynos and Qualcomm in previous years in the flagship brand, with the chipset choice being geographically decided.
Given the lower cost of the home-grown Exynos chipset compared to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon option, Samsung will be hoping it can return to the split inventory it had before. Exynos is widely regarded as being less powerful than the equivalent Snapdragon, but it can have better battery life. For those looking for “a good Samsung phone” that gravitates towards that year’s S25 and S25+ equivalent, the slight loss in benchmarking on the Exynos is nowhere close to being a dealbreaker.
Samsung Galaxy S26 And Qualcomm
The Galaxy S Ultra is the handset of choice for those looking for maximum power with the highest benchmark. It has generally been powered by a Qualcomm chip around the world, no matter if the lower handsets offer split specs. Qualcomm even helped this pitch by offering an overclocked chipset to Samsung—this year, it is called the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 For Galaxy.
With that, the Samsung community returns to one of its age-old questions. Will the next Galaxy S family have the more powerful (but more expensive) Snapdragon chipsets across the range, or will Samsung use its own Exynos chipsets in lower specced models to keep costs down?
Samsung’s Exynos 2600 Goals
Update, Monday Mar 10, 2025: More details have emerged on Samsung’s goals for the Exynos 2600. NotebookCheck’s Alex Alderson picks out some of the key targets around yields that need to be achieved.
The reference point is around the seventy percent mark. Reaching that level will make mass production a viable option for Samsung Foundry. The overriding issue at the moment is the yield rate on its 2nm node process; it’s reaching between twenty and thirty percent at best. In contrast, TSMC is reaching sixty percent on similar 2nm nodes.
Qualcomm and Nvidia are using TSMC and a side goal for Samsung Foundry must be to get some of that business in the future. This requires a clear demonstration of the prowess that would be found in the return of Exynos to Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S handsets.
The Exynos 2500 is not forgotten; expect to see that power this summer’s Galaxy Z Flip 7 foldable, but the big prize will be January 2026.
Samsung Galaxy S26 Decision Time
The FN News team suggest that the first mass production of the prototypes will begin in May. That will give Samsung the data it needs to make the call on the Galaxy S26 specifications.
Now read the latest Samsung Galaxy S26, Pixel 9a, and Android world headlines in Forbes’ weekly Android news digest…
