Galaxy phones are about to change: Samsung is finally doing what I’ve been waiting for

For a long while now, I’ve been cheering on Samsung’s efforts at bringing back its in-house Exynos processors. That is happening with the Galaxy S26 series next year, and the 2 nm Exynos 2600 is a force to be reckoned with.

But something else is taking place as well, something that I’ve been saying needs to happen. Something that has always been the end goal for the Exynos chipsets. It’s finally happening, and the Galaxy phones are about to change forever.

Custom processors for Galaxy

While the Exynos processors might save Samsung some manufacturing costs, they’re not exactly anything unique. Apple did something truly spectacular with its A-series and M-series chipsets, which propelled the iPhone — and especially the MacBook — to enviable new heights.

This is apparently exactly what Samsung wants to achieve with custom processors designed for its Galaxy phones. The company’s reported new “Custom SoC Development Team” will design chipsets uniquely suited to the hardware on the Galaxy phones.

However, this raises some questions as well.

Will Samsung heavily restrict Android?

See, the thing is, Apple’s excellent performance on its devices stems from the fact that it controls both the hardware, as well as the software. The A-series chips and the M-series chips interface beautifully with iOS, macOS, and iPadOS. There is a synergy between the hardware and software that results in efficient, fast operation (when it’s not ruined by bugs, of course).

But Samsung doesn’t make its phones run on a proprietary piece of software that no one else is allowed to use: the Galaxy phones use Android. Sure, Samsung has its custom One UI on top, but it’s still Android underneath.

To truly achieve the level of synergy between the hardware and software as found on Apple’s devices, Samsung would need to design an entirely new operating system from scratch. And that, unfortunately, is likely not going to happen any time soon. Which means that this news might not be as exciting as we’d hoped.

But there is still some hope.

Galaxy phones can still evolve

The Galaxy phones might not be headed to a future like that of the iPhone, but Samsung’s new, aforementioned division can still help them evolve.

While the software is still going to be Android, Samsung can definitely introduce new code into One UI to make it play a lot nicer with the new chips. This is all conjecture for now, but the new chips could most definitely help Samsung achieve better performance and improved battery efficiency on its devices.