Samsung's Galaxy S26 Could Go Back To Exynos, But Not Everywhere

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Summary

The Galaxy S26 may feature the Exynos 2600 chipset only in Europe, per a new leak.
Samsung is reportedly facing yield-related issues with its upcoming 2nm mobile SoC.
This suggests the Galaxy S26 variants sold in the US and presumably the rest of the world could come with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 chipset.

Although we’re several months away from the Samsung Galaxy S26’s release, rumors about the smartphone’s hardware are steadily increasing. Even before the Galaxy S25 arrived, we learned that Samsung may be returning to its in-house Exynos chipset for the Galaxy S26 series in some regions. A new report now appears to corroborate this to some extent.

Citing an industry note, leaker Jukanlosreve says the Galaxy S26 models sold in Europe will utilize the upcoming Exynos 2600 chipset. This decision, per the source, is due to the relatively low yield of the Exynos chip. A similar approach was rumored last year, with reports highlighting Samsung’s eagerness to outfit the Exynos 2500 in the Galaxy S25 series. But as we learned in January, that didn’t happen, and the company stuck with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite for its early 2025 flagship.

Back to a familiar pattern

Based on this note shared by Jukanlosreve, it’s clear that Samsung is not giving up on the Exynos dream. It will be interesting to see if Samsung will follow last year’s pattern, where the Galaxy S24 Ultra came bundled with Qualcomm’s flagship SoC (Snapdragon 8 Gen 3) in every market, while the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24+ launched with the Exynos 2400 chipset in all but a few regions.

If you’re a US customer, there’s not a lot that’s going to change. Based on this reporting, it seems like the Galaxy S26 with Exynos 2600 will be limited to Europe, while the rest of the world (including the US) will presumably find the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 onboard. The Exynos 2600 will be based on the 2nm fabrication process, a marked upgrade over the 3nm Exynos 2500.

Assuming Samsung follows a similar launch schedule as the Galaxy S25, we expect the Galaxy S26 to go official by January 2026. As is the case with most flagships, we should have a better idea about the smartphone lineup’s hardware in the months and weeks leading up to the big day.

A significant camera upgrade is already rumored, such as a 200MP periscope camera, taking a leaf out of smartphone brand Vivo’s book. However, we get a feeling that the Exynos vs Snapdragon discussion will dominate the news cycle leading up to the Galaxy S26’s arrival.