Samsung has officially confirmed that Galaxy flagship phones releasing in 2026 will use the new Exynos processor with competitive performance.

The phone maker has made it clear that the next-gen Exynos chipset will be used for “key flagship models” in 2026. The company hasn’t clarified these models, but it’s likely to be referenced for the Galaxy S26 series. Exynos has been at the center of Samsung’s semiconductor strategy for Galaxy smartphones, but lacks in its foundry process for this chipset has caused a serious meltdown in performance.

On one hand, Samsung was troubled by the declining performance and poor thermal protection. On the other hand, Qualcomm kept on polishing its Snapdragon chip for flagship phones. Since Exynos is no longer taking part in the competition, Samsung fully turned its sights to Snapdragon’s premium chipset, and the Galaxy S series left all of the worries created by the Exynos chip.

The company is once again plotting a major shift in its chipset integration for the S-series phones. Leaks and rumors already indicate that the Galaxy S26 series will feature the Exynos 2600 chip, a sign of Samsung re-trusting this Snapdragon rival. This movement clearly reflects on the company’s Q3 business result, where Samsung remained quite vocal on Exynos’ next year’s implementation plan.

Rumors also had it that the Galaxy S26 series will fully adopt this chipset from the base to the Ultra model. If so, Samsung will have to lock this choice in some countries/regions. However, Samsung will include Snapdragon for the top model in the majority of markets due to its stable performance. We can add the possibility of Samsung shipping this chip with the non-Ultra models, just like the Galaxy S24 series. Similarly, the Galaxy Z Flip 8 and Fold 8 may also follow this chipset integration.

For 2026, Samsung is expected to launch the Exynos 2600 chipset, processed with its in-house 2nm technology. A recent Geekbench score leak shows that the company has come far from the 3nm processed Exynos 2500 featured in the Galaxy Z Flip 7.

Samsung’s optimism about the 2026 Exynos chipset is amusing, but its on-board performance will be worth comparing with Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 while discussing some serious upsides of the 2nm technology battle.

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