Samsung has shed more light on its future mobile processor strategy, revealing ambitions to reintegrate Exynos chips across the entire Galaxy ecosystem after years of heavy reliance on Qualcomm.

Speaking at a press briefing on the sidelines of the Galaxy Unpacked 2026 event in San Francisco, Moon Sung Hoon, Vice President of Hardware at Samsung’s Mobile eXperience division, stated that the company envisions Exynos becoming the primary processing platform for the Galaxy series in the long term.

According to the Samsung executive, the application processor (AP) is the "heart" of a smartphone, directly dictating performance, battery life, and the overall user experience. As such, the company is working closely with various partners to select the most optimal silicon solutions for each product.

For the current generation, the Galaxy S26 and S26+ are powered by the Exynos 2600, Samsung's in-house silicon. This marks a significant return for the Exynos brand following the company's complete pivot to Snapdragon for the Galaxy S25 series.

Previously, the Exynos 2200 faced criticism over thermal management and performance issues on the Galaxy S22, forcing Samsung to adjust its strategy. This renewed push for Exynos is viewed as a crucial move to balance manufacturing costs and regain control over core technologies.

Samsung emphasized that its AP strategy is a long-term play, requiring years of research, testing, and rigorous evaluation before hitting the commercial market. According to Moon, the Exynos 2600 has cleared strict internal standards, largely due to significant improvements in power efficiency. Billed as the industry's first 2nm AP, the chip promises higher performance coupled with lower battery consumption.

Despite the ultimate goal of ubiquitous Exynos integration across its device portfolio, Samsung is maintaining a dual-platform strategy to maximize efficiency. The top-tier Galaxy S26 Ultra continues to utilize the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, while the standard and Plus models rely on Exynos.

The new Snapdragon silicon delivers a massive leap in AI capabilities, boasting a 39% increase in NPU performance, alongside 19% and 24% improvements in CPU and GPU speeds, respectively, compared to its predecessor.

Ultimately, Samsung affirmed its commitment to heavy investment in hardware innovation, aiming to deliver a simpler, more stable, and highly optimized experience for future generations of Galaxy users.