“European Samsung Galaxy S26 series gets Exynos, rest of the world Snapdragon”
We knew it was coming but it still falls raw on us. Samsung has turned its Exynos chip division around again and Europe will suffer the consequences. Because the S26 will again be equipped with an Exynos chip here. The rest of the world will get the latest Snapdragon chip.
With the Samsung Galaxy S25 series, Samsung did not manage to make its own Exynos chip in sufficient volumes, and also make it competitive enough with the Snapdragon 8 Elite. As a result, the device was sold worldwide with a Qualcomm processor. Which was good news for Europe in particular; the Exynos chip proved to be no match for the Snapdragon chip in recent years.
But production of the Exynos 2600 is on schedule, so Samsung can once again equip one part of the Galaxy S series with its own mobile processor. And that's traditionally Europe. The US and Asia will get the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2. Previous benchmarks already show that it outperforms the Exynos 2600.
Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 performs "markedly better" than Exynos 2600
This rumor comes from X user @Jukanlosreve. Ideally, Samsung would like to apply the Exynos 2600 worldwide but it cannot make enough copies for that. This user also confirms that the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 clearly outperforms the Exynos 2600. Just like previous years.
Samsung has been targeting the US market for years, in addition to its home market. It wants to hurt its biggest competitor Apple especially in its home country. This puts Europe at a disadvantage. Whether that strategy is useful now that additional import tariffs are being imposed remains to be seen. Apple has managed to secure a preferential position with the current U.S. administration, possibly to the detriment of Samsung.
