Samsung Electronics is going all out to equip the new Galaxy S26 series, which is scheduled to be released early next year, with the Exynos 2600 SoC.
According to the industry, Samsung will equip the Galaxy Z Flip 7, which is scheduled to be released in the second half of this year, with the Exynos 2500. Exynos 2500 is a high-tech mobile AP developed by Samsung. Samsung was going to apply Exynos 2500 to the Galaxy S25 series, which was released earlier this year, but failed to secure yield and replaced it with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite.
Exynos 2500 was reported to have a yield of less than 50% at the beginning of this year, but it is said to have entered full-scale mass production preparation as the yield has increased to a considerable level due to recent process improvements.
Exynos 2500 will be first installed in the Galaxy Z Flip 7, a foldable phone scheduled to be released in the second half of this year, and then will be applied to other Samsung devices in sequence.
Samsung is starting to move away from Qualcomm with the application of Exynos 2500. It is rushing to prepare for the installation of Exynos 2600 in the new Galaxy S26, which is scheduled to be released early next year.
Samsung Electronics' Semiconductor (SD) Division's Foundry Business Division has recently formed a dedicated team to develop the Exynos 2600 and is responding in earnest.
According to industry sources, Samsung will begin mass production of the Exynos 2600 in May as a prototype and will work to increase its yield. Sumsung will conduct prototype testing and production until the end of this year and then make a final decision on whether to use it in the Galaxy S26 series.
It is currently expected that the yield of the 2nm process-based Exynos 2600 is much higher than that of the 3nm-based Exynos 2500.
Samsung, which failed to equip the Galaxy S25 series with Exynos 2500, is internally feeling a serious sense of crisis, and it is reported that the business division is going all out to see the Galaxy S26 series as the last chance for the survival of Exynos.
If Samsung also relies on Qualcomm's Snapdragon for the Galaxy S26 series, it will again incur huge costs. Qualcomm has a monopoly on modem chips and APs, and is raising prices and royalties by 15-20% each year.
In the industry, the current price of Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite is about 20% higher than the previous generation at about $190, about twice as expensive. Because of this, Samsung spent a whopping 12 trillion won last year on mobile AP purchases alone.
As the cost burden of APs and the like is increasing, Samsung Electronics' rival Apple is also actively moving away from Qualcomm.
Apple used its own modem chip C1 instead of Qualcomm products in the iPhone 16e, an entry-level model released on the 28th of last month.
Apple has used Qualcomm or Intel chips for the modem chips that connect smartphones to carriers, although it has used its own application processors (APs) for its products.
By using its own modem chip C1 for the iPhone 16e, Apple has become completely independent from Qualcomm.
