Galaxy S26 looks set to break Samsung’s bad luck with Exynos

Last updated: February 25th, 2025 at 12:42 UTC+01:00

Samsung tried but it couldn’t get enough supply of the Exynos 2500 to use it for the Galaxy S25 and the S25+. Chalk it up to the foundry’s issues or just pure bad luck, either way, it forced Samsung to go with the Snapdragon 8 Elite for the entire lineup. The company is still hoping to use the Exynos 2500 in the Galaxy Z Flip FE later this year.

There have been reports that Samsung wants to bring back the Exynos in a big way with next year’s Galaxy S26 series. If the news coming out of South Korea is any indication, the Galaxy S26 might finally break its bad luck with Exynos.

Exynos 2600 seems to be on track for the Galaxy S26

Samsung is said to be working on yield stabilization of the Exynos 2600 chipset through the SF2 process. The company will begin mass production of the chipset on this process with its 3rd generation GAA technology in the second half of this year. The process improvements are likely to deliver a 12% performance and 25% power efficiency improvement in addition to a 5% reduction in size.

Yields in the recent test production run were reported to be at 30% already, which is a promising sign that the foundry may not run into the same issues as it did with the Exynos 2500. There’s enough time between now and the second half of this year to ramp up yields enough so that adequate supply can be ensured for the Galaxy S26 series.

Samsung needs to have Exynos in the chipset mix for next year’s flagship as Qualcomm is expected to further increase the price of its Snapdragon chipsets in 2026. This would eat into Samsung margins, leaving it with no other option than to either lower its profitability on each handset sold or pinch customers further through a price increase.

News For You