The upcoming Samsung Galaxy S26 series is anticipated to feature two distinct chipsets, marking a notable shift in Samsung's approach to smartphone processors. The Exynos 2600, which Samsung claims is the first 2nm smartphone chipset, aims to enhance performance and efficiency significantly compared to previous generations. In contrast, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, launched during the Snapdragon Summit 2025, employs a 3nm manufacturing process and focuses on high performance.
Samsung's latest offering includes a 10-core CPU based on the Arm v9.3 architecture, while Qualcomm's chipset utilizes an 8-core design with its third-generation Oryon architecture. The clock speeds also differ, with the Exynos 2600 featuring a maximum of 3.8 GHz compared to Snapdragon's higher speeds of up to 4.60 GHz.
Real-world performance evaluations will be crucial once devices powered by the Exynos 2600 are available to consumers. Both chipsets support LPDDR5X memory and UFS 4.1 storage, although the Exynos modem boasts a higher peak downlink speed of 14.79 Gbps compared to Snapdragon's 12.5 Gbps.