Samsung Electronics plans to equip the standard and Plus models of the Galaxy S26 series, slated for release next year, with the Exynos 2600 mobile application processor (AP) built on a 2-nanometer (nm) process, alongside another chip. The Samsung Electronics System LSI Division intends to lower the price by about $20-$30 compared with Qualcomm's Snapdragon chips to leverage cost-effectiveness and increase AP supply volume.
This is expected to help improve profitability at Samsung Electronics' Mobile eXperience (MX) Division, which has struggled with the pricing of Qualcomm's Snapdragon series. Some also raised concerns that using two different chipsets in a single smartphone model could lead to performance differences depending on the launch country.
According to the industry on the 18th, the Samsung Electronics System LSI Division has been negotiating with the Samsung Electronics MX Division to set the Exynos 2600's supply unit price about $20 to as much as $30 lower than Qualcomm's products. After initial supply, whether to renegotiate prices for follow-up volumes will be decided based on the situation and the reactions of consumers and mobile carriers.
Because the Samsung Electronics System LSI Division and Foundry Division have performance improvements riding on the Exynos 2600, they are actively engaging in price competition. For the previous Galaxy S25, the plan to use the Exynos 2500 fell through, hurting results at both the System LSI and Foundry divisions. The Exynos 2500 later found a foothold by being installed in the Galaxy Z Flip7, reigniting a revival, and with the Exynos 2600, they succeeded in re-entering.
The Galaxy S26 equipped with the Exynos 2600 from the Samsung Electronics System LSI Division will likely be sold mainly in Korea and other parts of Asia. The Exynos 2600 is aiming to challenge Qualcomm by being the industry's first to adopt the 2 nm Gate-All-Around (GAA) process, boosting performance and power efficiency while also securing price competitiveness. If the Exynos 2600 successfully settles back into the Galaxy series, it will lay the groundwork to supply the Exynos series to Samsung's new foldable phones to be released next year.
However, the fact that consumers and mobile carriers at home and abroad prefer Qualcomm Snapdragon poses a burden for Samsung Electronics. Considering that the Snapdragon series' "customized heterogeneous" chip design technology greatly contributed to the success of Samsung's flagship smartphone business, including the Galaxy S25, some analysts say there could be differences in real-world experience between Snapdragon-equipped models and Exynos-equipped models.
Samsung Electronics and Qualcomm both use chip architecture designs from the United Kingdom's Arm for mobile AP design, but there are considerable differences in how they design chips. Qualcomm directly designs fully smartphone-optimized custom cores, while Samsung applies designs that partially modify Arm's reference design. This can lead to differences in performance, power efficiency, and connectivity in real smartphone use.
An industry official said, "Although the Exynos 2600 reportedly posted good indicators in benchmark results, the performance when it is actually installed and run in a smartphone is entirely separate," adding, "Apple and Qualcomm's chips adopt custom core designs to optimize for smartphones, focusing on real-world use rather than the chip's own benchmarks, and this follows the same logic."
Meanwhile, Samsung, which had been grappling with rising expenses for mobile APs purchased from Qualcomm, has been able to lower mobile chip purchase prices by inducing price competition between the two companies. According to Samsung Electronics' quarterly report, Samsung Electronics' cumulative mobile AP purchases in the third quarter this year totaled 10.9275 trillion won. That was a 25.5% surge compared with 8.0751 trillion won in the same period a year earlier.