The rumor mill has been buzzing about the Samsung Galaxy S26 series for the past few months. Some sources speculate about the lineup’s rumored chipset, while others suggest that Samsung might drop the S26 Edge from the lineup. The latest rumor, however, brings intriguing details about the Exynos 2600 and its expected performance in the Galaxy S26 series.
As reported by @Jukanlosreve on X, Samsung plans to adopt its in-house Exynos 2600 for all S26 models, including the base, Plus, and Ultra variants. However, this change will only affect the Korean and European markets, while S26 devices launched in the US, Japan, and China will still rely on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 Elite.
The most intriguing part of this report concerns the Exynos 2600’s performance and its comparison with Apple’s A19 Pro. According to Jukanlosreve, internal tests show that the Exynos 2600’s NPU (neural processing unit) is over six times faster than the A19 Pro’s. Multi-core CPU performance is 14 percent higher, while GPU performance is reportedly up to 75 percent better than Apple’s flagship chipset used in iPhone 17 Pro.
As for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 Elite, Exynos 2600 allegedly offers about 30 percent higher NPU performance and up to 29 percent higher GPU performance.
The Exynos 2600 hasn’t reached the market yet, while the A19 Pro and Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 Elite are already powering some available flagship phones. Therefore, it’s wise to take any claims about the Exynos 2600’s performance with a grain of salt until the chipset is tested in real-world applications. In fact, the performance claims against Apple’s and Qualcomm’s flagship chipsets are so bold that they’re hard to believe.
The Galaxy S26 series is expected to launch as early as next year, and Samsung has reportedly begun mass production of the Exynos 2600. The chipset is manufactured using Samsung Foundry’s latest 2-nm process.