Ahead of the expected launch of the Galaxy S26 series, Samsung has officially announced the Exynos 2600, its next-generation flagship smartphone processor. The new chip marks a significant step for Samsung Semiconductor, as it is the world’s first smartphone system-on-chip built using a 2nm Gate-All-Around manufacturing process. According to Samsung, the shift to 2nm is aimed at improving performance efficiency and thermal behaviour. The Exynos 2600 is expected to power select Galaxy S26 series smartphones in certain markets.

The Exynos 2600 features a 10-core CPU based on Arm’s v9.3 architecture. Samsung has adopted a revised core layout that removes traditional low-power cores entirely, instead relying on a mix of high-performance and efficiency-focused cores.

The CPU configuration includes one prime C1-Ultra core clocked at 3.8GHz, three high-performance C1-Pro cores running at 3.25GHz, and six efficiency-focused C1-Pro cores operating at 2.75GHz. According to Samsung, this setup delivers up to 39 percent higher CPU performance compared to the previous-generation Exynos 2500. Support for Arm’s SME2 instructions is also included to improve on-device machine learning workloads.

On the graphics side, the Exynos 2600 integrates the Xclipse 960 GPU. Samsung claims the new GPU offers double the compute performance of its predecessor, along with up to 50 percent better ray tracing performance. The chip also introduces Exynos Neural Super Sampling, which uses AI-based upscaling and frame generation to improve gaming performance while managing power consumption.