TECH

Samsung will return to Exynos for Galaxy S26 series: claims tipster

While the Galaxy S25 series is yet to be officially announced, rumors are already circulating about the Galaxy S26 series. According to recent reports from a tipster on X (formerly Twitter), Samsung is planning to “significantly” equip the Galaxy S26 lineup with its in-house Exynos chips. It signals a potential return to the company’s long-standing strategy of using its own processors in flagship devices in most of the regions.

The move to bring Exynos chips back to Samsung’s flagship smartphones follows challenges that Samsung faced with the Exynos 2500, which was originally intended to power the Galaxy S25 series. However, due to production issues, particularly around yield rates for the 3nm architecture, it wasn’t economical for Samsung to mass produce the chip for the S25 series. As a result, the S25 lineup is expected to primarily feature Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, with Exynos 2500 reserved for the Galaxy Z Flip 7 and Z Flip FE models instead.

According to a recent report out of South Korea, Samsung has achieved some progress towards mass production with its 3nm process (for the Exynos 2500) and is also believed to achieve the same in time with the 2nm process for the Exynos 2600.

The history and strategy behind Exynos chips...Samsung’s decision to revisit Exynos chips with the S26 series makes sense from a business standpoint. In fact, the company has traditionally powered the majority of its devices with its own chips. However, the performance gap between Exynos and Snapdragon chips in previous years led to a mixed reception from consumers.

For its Galaxy S23 series, Samsung made the decision to exclusively use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 after facing criticism over the dual-platform strategy. This move was well-received, with the Snapdragon variant of the Galaxy S23 outperforming the Exynos-powered version. However, Samsung returned to its dual-chip strategy with the Galaxy S24 series, using both Exynos and Snapdragon depending on the region.

The Exynos 2400, which powers the S24 series, has shown significant improvements and now competes more closely with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon counterparts in terms of performance. This development bodes well for the Exynos 2600, which is expected to reduce the performance gap even further. In addition to all of that, there’s still a significant portion of people who just prefer Exynos on their Galaxy regardless of the performance or power efficiency. Considering all of that, it won’t be surprising if Samsung “significantly” equips its future flagships with its in-house chips again.

mundophone