Samsung Teases Exynos 2600 Chip With Refined Cores For Galaxy S26

by Aaron Leong — Wednesday, December 03, 2025, 10:58 AM EDT

Samsung has formally confirmed the existence of its next-generation flagship processor, the Exynos 2600. From what we can tell, the new SoC bound for the S26 seems to be the course correction that the company has promised for ages, following years of Exynos performance controversies.

The official reveal trailer titled “The next Exynos” (combined with moody, atmospheric music straight out of Stranger Things) appears to address the elephant in the room. The South Korean tech giant opened the clip with, “In silence, we listened,” an apparent nod to the years of criticism from users and reviewers regarding overheating, throttling, and a performance gap compared to rival Snapdragon models from Qualcomm. Could this acknowledgement actually lead to a redemption story?

Samsung emphasizes the new silicon is “refined at the core” and “optimized at every level.” The 2600 is widely expected to leverage Samsung Foundry’s cutting-edge 2-nanometer Gate-All-Around (GAA) manufacturing process, potentially making it the first of its kind to hit the global market. While official figures tout a relatively modest 5% performance bump and an 8% efficiency improvement over the existing 3nm node, the real victory lies in stability and power control. Circulating rumors insist that the reduced current leakage achievable at 2nm will deliver efficiency gains that could even challenge Apple’s powerful A19 Pro in performance-per-watt metrics.

galaxy s25a — *Samsung Galaxy S25 series*

Helping the 2600 with sustained performance is a rumored internal solution known as Heat Pass Block, which functions as a miniature, on-chip heatsink, actively managing thermal spikes that plagued older Exynos generations (by up to 30%), as previously suggested by a Samsung executive. If realized, this would allow the chip to maintain its high clock speeds for far longer, effectively eliminating the throttling issues that frustrated users in the past.

The chip's imminent launch is typically tied directly to the release of the company’s next flagship phone, meaning the Exynos 2600 is all but certain to debut inside some variants of the Galaxy S26 series in early 2026. Samsung is anticipated to continue its dual-sourcing strategy, equipping the standard Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus models with either the Exynos 2600 or the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 depending on the region, though the premium S26 Ultra is currently tipped for a global Snapdragon-only release.