Samsung introduces 2nm Exynos 2600 processor ahead of upcoming Galaxy S26 Lineup

Samsung has officially unveiled its upcoming Exynos 2600 chipset – the South Korean company’s first 2-nanometer (2 nm) mobile processor. The new chipset is expected to be used in some models of the upcoming Galaxy S26 series of smartphones. Samsung has unveiled the teaser for its next-generation flagship chipset, the Exynos 2600, with the teaser highlighting that it is “refined at the core, optimized at every level.”

Samsung will release the Exynos 2600 mobile processor next year

Samsung’s teaser for the Exynos 2600 touts several improvements over previous generations, with the video that was released on December 3, hinting at improved thermal performance and suggesting the company is looking to make up for the lackluster performance of the Exynos chips of the past. The release video on YouTube has the following tagline: “In silence, we listened.”

As reported earlier, the chipset is expected to be fabricated using the Gate-All-Around (GAA) architecture at the 2 nm process node. This would make the Exynos 2600 the first-ever 2 nm mobile chip built using the GAA design. Leaked information also suggests that the chipset is likely to have as many as 10 CPU cores with a peak frequency of up to 4 GHz.

The source also reveals that the Exynos 2600 has significant enhancements in terms of AI and graphics performance. It is said that the Neural Processing Unit (NPU) inside the Exynos 2600 can be up to 30% faster compared to the previous generation of Exynos SoCs. On the other hand, the graphics processing capabilities are said to be more competitive with the chip expected to feature an AMD-derived GPU codenamed Xclipse 960. The graphics performance of the GPU is said to be around 29% better than that of the previous integrated graphics solution in Samsung’s Exynos mobile processors.

Leaks show that the Exynos 2600 has benchmark scores close to those of the top chipsets from other manufacturers

The Samsung Exynos 2600 has made an appearance in the Geekbench benchmarking platform, further validating previous leaks. The Geekbench scores suggest the Exynos 2600 to have single-core and multi-core scores of around 3,300 and 11,300, respectively, which are in the same ballpark as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and Apple A16 Bionic chipsets.

Samsung may continue dual-sourcing strategy with Galaxy S26 series

The upcoming Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus are expected to use either the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 or the Exynos 2600, with the selection most likely being done on a market-by-market basis, a strategy that Samsung has stuck to since the Galaxy S23 series of smartphones. The higher-end model, the Galaxy S26 Ultra, is rumored to only have a Snapdragon variant.

Which version of Galaxy S26 you will get will most likely depend on the region

The launch of the Exynos 2600 mobile processor suggests that Samsung is making significant changes to its mobile chipsets and is attempting to compete with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon lineup of processors. Whether the Exynos 2600 lives up to expectations and can deliver the performance and efficiency that Samsung claims remains to be seen. The chipset is expected to be integrated into Samsung’s Galaxy S26 series of smartphones early next year.