We know that the Samsung Galaxy S26 series is coming, but the rumors we've been hearing this year have been all over the place. The latest batch throws another wrench into the works, potentially changing what we know about the upcoming phones' chipsets. In fact, this could see the Ultra model get a Samsung-made Exynos chip for the first time since the Galaxy S22 Ultra.
According to a report from Korean site Yonhap News, Samsung is set to begin mass production of the Exynos 2600 chipset in November. This is not exactly news, since we've heard rumors about the Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus coming with this specific Exynos chip outside the U.S. But the key thing here is that the site claims the 2600 will also be used in the Galaxy S26 Ultra.
Samsung's use of Exynos chips has been rather inconsistent. The past few years have seen more of a reliance on Qualcomm's Snapdragon chips, but Exynos chips haven't completely vanished. Some non-Ultra models outside the U.S., like Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus, have featured Exynos chips — but the Ultras have utilized the latest Snapdragon chipsets all over the world.
Switching back to Exynos is quite a big deal, especially since the chips have historically offered worse performance than their Qualcomm-made rivals. However, Yonhap News claims that the new 2600 chip should solve that issue.
The report claims that the Exynos 2600's neural processing is six times higher than Apple's A19 Pro in inside the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max. This should prove incredibly useful for generative AI. CPU performance is reportedly 15% higher than the A19 Pro, while GPU performance is said to be up by 75% "in some benchmarks."
As for the newly-announced Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, Yonhap News reports that the 2600 offers 29% better GPU performance and 30% better with the NPU. There's no mention of the CPU performance, though, and I can't decide whether that's a red flag or not.
For those of you in the U.S., none of this is likely to matter. Samsung has always consistently offered Qualcomm chips on the flagship Galaxy S lineup, and rumor has it that it will be continuing this habit with the Galaxy S26 series.
We're not going to find out just how much of a difference there is until the Galaxy S26 series is released — which should happen in early 2026. In the meantime, you can keep up to date with all the latest news and rumors by checking out our Samsung Galaxy S26 and Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra hubs.
