Samsung Electronics has unveiled its Exynos 2600 mobile processor, a 2-nanometre chip the company says is designed to overcome longstanding criticisms of its in-house smartphone silicon, as it prepares for the launch of its next-generation Galaxy S devices.
The Exynos 2600 is Samsung’s first processor built on a 2nm Gate-All-Around (GAA) process and is expected to debut in the Galaxy S26 lineup. Samsung said the new chip delivers a 39% performance increase and improved power efficiency compared with the Exynos 2500, following complaints in recent years over heat management and battery drain in earlier Exynos-powered models.
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Samsung has alternated between Qualcomm and Exynos processors in its flagship phones, with the Galaxy S23 and S25 using Qualcomm chips globally. It remains unclear whether the Exynos 2600 will be offered outside South Korea in 2026, potentially reviving a regional split between Exynos and Snapdragon variants.
At the hardware level, the Exynos 2600 uses a deca-core design based on ARM’s new Lumex architecture, paired with Samsung’s Xclipse 960 graphics processor and a 32K MAC neural processing unit. Samsung said the new NPU offers a 113% improvement in generative AI performance over its predecessor, while a new Heat Path Block is designed to reduce thermal buildup by acting as an integrated heat sink.
Samsung also highlighted advances in imaging and gaming, including a new AI-based visual perception system for cameras and support for an AVP video codec aimed at professional recording. “Mobile gamers will finally be satisfied with an Exynos chip,” Samsung said, pointing to claims of double the graphics performance and a 50% boost in ray tracing compared with the previous generation, as competition intensifies in the premium smartphone processor market.
Source: Samsung