Samsung Galaxy S26 series to mark a return to Exynos

Samsung hasn't even announced the Galaxy S25 family yet and here we are already talking about the Galaxy S26 series, due to be released most likely in January of 2026. Still, a new rumor from a tipster over on X claims that Samsung aims to "significantly" equip the S26 line with Exynos chips.

This follows a rumored failure to do so for the S25 models due to yield issues for the Exynos 2500 that was supposed to power them in most markets. Thus, rumor has it the S25 line will go with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite if not everywhere, then almost everywhere, while the Exynos 2500, which finally got its yields fixed in the past few days, will be pushed to the Galaxy Z Flip7 and Galaxy Z Flip FE instead.

Clearly, Samsung hopes the (presumed) Exynos 2600 for the Galaxy S26 generation won't encounter the same production issues as its predecessor and will thus help reduce the company's reliance on Qualcomm at the high-end.

Of course, do please heed the usual advice - this is but an unconfirmed rumor at this point, so it could be wholly made up. It does make sense from a business perspective for Samsung, though, so there's that.

Previous S26-related rumors claimed the vanilla model may get axed, the S26 Ultra might be called S26 Note, and the S26+ could be named S26 Pro.

Source