In summary
- Whole Galaxy S26 range could get Exynos power
- Performance gains said to be extraordinary
- Galaxy S26 may have been delayed
Samsung is reportedly going all in with its custom Exynos chips for the Galaxy S26 smartphone launch, but that might not be such terrible news.
According to leaker Ice Universe, Samsung is now considering using its brand new Exynos 2600 chip for the entire Galaxy S26 series. This would mean ditching the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip that’s been impressing in early benchmark tests.
The South Korean company has tried using its custom Exynos chips in select regions in the past, but the performance and efficiency has always fallen short of the Qualcomm-driven models
However, there’s reason to believe that this latest claim could actually be good thing – for some at least.
Exynos may have stolen the lead
The aforementioned claim came in response to a report from analyst Junkanlosreve.
This report claims that Samsung has made huge gains in the system on chip (SoC) department. Apparently, the Exynos 2600 has 6x better NPU performance (for AI tasks) than the A19 Pro used in the iPhone 17 Pro Max.
It also boasts 14 percent better CPU performance and 75 percent better GPU performance. That’s an astounding uptick in performance from a Samsung chip, if true.
If we’re comparing like for like with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, then the analyst claims that the Exynos 2600 has 30 percent better NPU performance and 29 percent better GPU performance. Wowzer.
There could still be a regional split in play here, with US, China and Japan-based Galaxy S26 users getting the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, and the rest of the world getting the new Exynos 2600. The main difference this time around, however, could be who is getting the better end of the deal.
Could the Galaxy S26 be delayed?
It’s not necessarily all good news for potential Galaxy S26 customers, however.
According to a new rumour from a Greek website, the Galaxy S26 launch has been massively delayed from January to March. Apparently, while the Galaxy S26 Ultra is ready to go, there are issues with the regular Galaxy S26.
It’s not worth panicking just yet – as SamMobile notes, there isn’t an awful lot of substance to these latest rumours. The detail is sorely lacking, and it wouldn’t be the first time we’ve heard about production issues at Samsung HQ. It usually turns its Galaxy S work in on time.
Rest assured we’ll be keeping an eye out for any more mentions of a potential delay, as well as some sort of verification for those wild Exynos 2600 performance claims.
