The hidden performance cost of the Galaxy S26 Ultra might make you choose another phone

After four years, Exynos is returning to Samsung’s Ultra models. Samsung Foundry has reportedly been able to get the excellent 2 nm in-house Exynos 2600 chipset ready in time for it to debut alongside the Galaxy S26.

However, a new report points out that the Exynos phones may still fall behind their Snapdragon counterparts.

Exynos 2600 is awesome on paper

On paper, the Exynos 2600 is pretty powerful: even faster than the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, which is Qualcomm’s latest and greatest chipset. The Exynos 2600 is also considerably more powerful than Apple’s A19 Pro chip, which is used by the iPhone 17 Pro models. So what’s the catch?

As always, the catch may be found in tests focusing on sustained performance.

Samsung’s 2 nm behind TSMC’s 3 nm

The report (subscription required), which cites sources “familiar with Samsung’s situation”, claims that Samsung Foundry’s 2 nm process doesn’t match TSMC’s (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) 3 nm process. Specifically, regarding efficiency and performance.

This, by extension, may mean that the Exynos 2600 may not be as powerful or as efficient as the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, at least when it comes to sustained performance. Which means that the Exynos variants of the Galaxy S26 series may, once more, fall behind the Snapdragon variants.

How much does this matter?

Personally, I think that the Exynos vs Snapdragon debate doesn’t matter. Both chips will be so ridiculously powerful, that the average user will never, ever notice the difference.

But let’s say that you’re not the average user. In that case, yes: the Snapdragon variants may end up being better once again. However, Samsung has just done something incredible with the Exynos 2600, and it can change the future of Galaxy phones forever.

Samsung has shown that it can manufacture extremely powerful processors en masse. Processors that it is so confident in, that it’s using them in its top-of-the-line models. This is Samsung Foundry’s major win against TSMC. The company is currently offering very favorable rates to clients, and that may just end up pulling customers away from TSMC.

And, as the report suggests (and I hope), if the Exynos 2600 proves itself, then Samsung will get a lot more business to attend to. Business that will bring in profits that the foundry can then use to improve its processes to match, or even surpass, TSMC. Ultimately leading, fingers crossed, to Samsung’s own Apple silicon moment.

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