We’re sure Samsung would love to follow in Apple’s footsteps by releasing phones powered by its own Exynos chipsets. Unfortunately, contrary to the rumors, the Exynos 2600 has been considered to be premature for the Galaxy S26 series.
Exynos 2600 premature for Galaxy S26
According to recently leaked benchmarks, it suggests that the Exynos 2600 is quite the powerhouse. It has significantly outperformed Apple’s A19 Pro in multi-core scores. However, a recent report from Korea suggests that it might be too premature to consider using the Exynos 2600 for the Galaxy S26 lineup.
The report suggests that this is namely due to the yield of the chipsets. Samsung is seeing yields of 50%, and has reportedly produced an initial wafer count of 15,000 units. This means that in the best case scenario, only 30% of Galaxy S26 shipments could be outfitted with the chipset.
So, what does this mean moving forwards? This means that there is a good chance Samsung could turn to Qualcomm once again, and that the Snapdragon 8 Elite 5 could end up powering the majority of the Galaxy S26 series. This contradicts earlier reports that claim that Samsung might actually use the Exynos 2600 for its Galaxy S26 Ultra.
This might actually not be a bad thing, however. Samsung’s Exynos chips have typically been viewed in a negative light compared to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips. We’re sure that some fans out there are probably relieved at the latest development. But to be fair, we don’t know how well the Exynos 2600 actually performs. Sure, we’ve seen the benchmarks, but real life usage is a very different story.
What this means for Samsung’s foundry
It goes without saying that the low yields are concerning. Samsung is desperate to compete with TSMC. After all, TSMC gets orders from some of the largest companies in the world. We’re talking about Apple, Qualcomm, MediaTek, NVIDIA, and AMD, just to name a few. We’re pretty sure that Samsung would love to nibble at that pie.
However, these low yields means that even though Samsung’s semiconductor manufacturing tech might be close to what TSMC produces, if it cannot meet the demand of its customers, it’s pointless. Samsung had reportedly produced a 2nm version of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite 5. But whether or not Qualcomm will bite and start ordering from Samsung remains to be seen.
