A new rumor has seemingly confirmed that Samsung will bring back its Exynos chips for the Galaxy S26 series in select markets.
The info comes from leaker Junkanlosreve, who posted on X that the Exynos 2600 chipset, made by Samsung's semiconductor arm, is “indeed planned to be used in the S26.”
However, the leaker goes on to state that, “due to reportedly low yield, it is likely to be equipped mainly in European models.” If accurate, this would be a return to a previous norm for Samsung, where it shipped flagship models with the Exynos chip in select countries, and Qualcomm-made Snapdragon silicon in others such as the U.S.
The Galaxy S25 series was launched with the Snapdragon 8 Elite across the globe, and many hoped the same would be true with the Galaxy S26 series and the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2. However, this news seemingly puts a damper on that hope, and Junkanlosreve goes on to state that “Qualcomm’s Snapdragon shows a ‘clear’ performance advantage over Exynos,” according to an industry source.
Samsung could be changing its mind... again
We first heard this same rumor back in March, again from Junkanlosreve, who again stated that the Galaxy S26 would be shipped with the Exynos, but due to limited chip volume, it will only be in the European market, similar to the Exynos 990 situation. This refers to when Samsung released the Galaxy S20 and the Galaxy Note 20 series in 2020 with the Exynos 990 outside of the US, Canada and China, with those markets getting phones with Snapdragon 865 and 865 Plus silicon.
Since Samsung is in the fortunate position to both design and build its own chips, it makes sense that it would want to use them for its own phones where possible. But while an Exynos 2500 chip was rumored to be in development for the Galaxy S25 series, those phones ended up launching with the Snapdragon 8 Elite worldwide.
As a result, Samsung Semiconductor's LSI is stated to have lost an estimated $400 million, according to Junkanlosreve. No doubt this is something Samsung will want to avoid repeating for future releases.
While two-tiered Galaxy S26 performance might be disappointing to many, there are still a lot of upgrades Samsung could make to improve the appeal of the Galaxy S26. For instance, we’ve heard that Samsung could introduce silicon-carbon batteries to the S26, as we’ve seen in the OnePlus 13 and Honor Magic7 Pro. These batteries have a higher energy density than standard lithium-ion batteries, meaning they can hold more charge in the same physical space.
It is worth taking this rumor with a pinch of salt, as Junkanlosreve has a bit of a mixed history when it comes to accurate leaks. Besides, there’s still a long time to wait before Samsung will even announce the next series of its mainline Galaxy phones, which is likely to happen in early 2026. Instead, the company's main focus right now is likely the next Galaxy Unpacked, which is rumored for July, and is tipped to include the reveals of the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip.
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