Samsung’s Galaxy S25 series will be the company’s first flagship of 2025. While all eyes are on the Galaxy S25, Galaxy S25+, and Galaxy S25 Ultra, speculations regarding the 2026’s Galaxy S26 series have started to appear online. The South Korean smartphone brand seems to be planning to use its custom Exynos chips in the Galaxy S25 successors. Several reports earlier this year claimed that Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25+ will pack the Exynos 2500 chipset in select markets. Recent leaks dispelled all rumours, claiming that all models in the Galaxy S25 series would run on Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset.
Samsung to Mark a Return to Exynos with Galaxy S26 Series
Tipster Jukanlosreve (@Jukanlosreve) on X posted that Samsung aims to “significantly” equip the Galaxy S26 with Exynos chips next year. This indicates that the company may follow its dual chip strategy of packing Exynos chips in non-Ultra models in select markets. It is likely to equip the in-house Exynos SoC in Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S26+ while reserving Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon hardware for the most expensive Galaxy S26 Ultra variant.
Samsung offered the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24+ with Exynos 2400 chip in select markets including India, while the rest of the world got the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC processor. However, the Galaxy S24 Ultra runs on Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC in all regions. All models in last year’s Galaxy S23 series were also launched with Snapdragon processors.
The Galaxy S25 lineup was initially speculated to arrive with Exynos 2500 chipsets under the hood. We even saw the Galaxy S25+ on Geekbench with the Exynos SoC. However, recent reports stated that hurdles in 3nm manufacturing reportedly hampered this plan and therefore Galaxy S25 family will use the Snapdragon 8 Elite silicon worldwide. Samsung is expected to use the Exynos 2500 series chipset in next year’s Galaxy Z Flip FE and Galaxy Z Flip 7.
As we are quite far from the potential launch date of the Galaxy S26 series, it would be wise to take this information with a grain of salt.