According to a report from ETNews, the Samsung Galaxy S26 series could debut in the next two years with a next-generation 2nm chip. The South Korean publication reports that Samsung is working on a 2nm processor for the new Exynos chip, which could enter mass production in the second half of 2025. The company has yet to launch a smartphone with a 3nm Exynos chip — the current Galaxy S24 lineup, which was introduced earlier this year and runs on the 4nm Exynos 2400 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chips in various markets.
According to a report from ETNews (in Korean), Samsung is developing a 2nm node for the chip, which is expected to debut in the Galaxy S26 series smartphones in early 2026. The smartphone maker’s advanced chip is reportedly codenamed Thetis. Rival chipmaker TSMC is also said to be working on its own 2nm node, but both companies have not said when they will be ready for production.
If these claims are accurate, the Exynos 2600 will compete with the rumored Snapdragon 8 Gen 5, MediaTek Dimensity 9500 and Apple’s A19 Pro chips. It could also be the successor to the Exynos W1000 chip, which is said to be used in the successors to the Galaxy Watch 6 series, which are likely to be launched later this year.
We can assume that the rumored Exynos 2600 chip will be powered by Arm’s Cortex X6 Prime core, which may also appear in the MediaTek Dimensity 9500 chip — Apple and Qualcomm use custom chip cores.
Earlier this month, it was reported that Samsung plans to launch the Galaxy S25 series of smartphones next year with a 3nm Exynos 2500 chip, which could offer better performance than the rumored Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 SoC. It is currently unclear whether Qualcomm’s next flagship mobile processor will be built on a 3nm node. Meanwhile, the same report also says that the Galaxy Watch 7 will also be powered by a 3nm Exynos W1000 chip.
When Samsung’s Galaxy S24 series was introduced earlier this year, gaming tests showed that the gap between Exynos and Snapdragon flagship chips was closing. Popular games such as Fortnite, Genshin Impact, PUBG Mobile, PUBG New State and Call of Duty: Mobile participated in the testing. According to the report, both the Exynos 2400 and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in Samsung’s flagships showed similar performance in these benchmarks.
