Exynos 2600 powered Galaxy S26 variants might be limited to just one country

With Samsung officially acknowledging the Exynos 2600, it effectively confirmed to launch alongside the Galaxy S26 series next year. Historically, Europe, Asia, and South Korea got Exynos-powered phones, while other markets such as the US, China, and Japan used Snapdragon chips across the board. A new report from DigiTimes says it could be a bit different this time.

Only South Korea will get Galaxy S26 devices powered by the Exynos 2600. Samsung's documentation confirms the Galaxy S26 Ultra will use a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 across all variants, leaving the Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S26 Plus/Pro as viable candidates. Some of the cited reasons include contractual obligations with Qualcomm and, more importantly, yield issues. Companies seldom reveal yield numbers publicly, but recent reports say SF2 is about 60%- just enough for a node to be viable for mass production.

To recall, the Exynos 2600 will be manufactured on Samsung's SF2 node, making it one of the first two nm-class semiconductors to launch. In theory, it should have an advantage over the TSMC N3P made Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 thanks to the node advantage. Preliminary Geekbench benchmark figures suggest the Exynos 2600 outperforms the Qualcomm flagship in multi-core performance but still has some catching up to do in single-core performance.