Samsung unveils Exynos 2600 chip, expected to power Galaxy S26 series

SEOUL, December 19 (AJP) - Samsung Electronics on Friday unveiled its Exynos 2600 mobile application processor, a chip widely expected to power the company’s next flagship Galaxy smartphone lineup, set for release early next year.

According to Samsung Electronics’ website, the Exynos 2600 was designed by Samsung’s System LSI Business and manufactured by Samsung Foundry, both part of the company’s Device Solutions (DS) division. The chip is produced using a 2-nanometer process incorporating gate-all-around (GAA) transistor technology.

An application processor serves as the primary computing chip in smartphones, handling tasks ranging from system operations to artificial intelligence workloads. Industry watchers view the Exynos 2600 as a likely candidate for the Galaxy S26 series, although Samsung has not formally confirmed this.

Samsung lists the Exynos 2600’s status as “mass production” on its website, a designation generally interpreted as indicating that manufacturing yields have reached a level suitable for large-scale output.

The company said the Exynos 2600 is the first mobile system-on-a-chip in the industry to incorporate a heat pass block, a technology designed to reduce thermal resistance by up to 16 percent and maintain stable internal temperatures under heavy workloads.

Built on the latest Arm architecture, the deca-core central processing unit delivers up to 39 percent higher computing performance compared with its predecessor, the Exynos 2500, Samsung officials said. The chip also features a more powerful neural processing unit, boosting generative artificial intelligence performance by 113 percent.