Samsung is sending Snapdragon S26s to the U.S. Why has that roiled Korea and Europe?
Published: 04 Dec. 2025, 07:00
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- LEE JAE-LIM
- [email protected]
Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI
![A rendered image of Samsung Electronics' Exynos 2600 processor [SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/12/04/0aa39d58-20f6-4fc1-a7ce-cb7ba449bbd9.jpg)
A rendered image of Samsung Electronics' Exynos 2600 processor [SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS]
[NEWS ANALYSIS]
Samsung’s decision to bring back its Exynos processor for next year’s Galaxy S26 lineup is sparking backlash in Europe and Asia, including in Korea, markets where handsets will be mounted with Exynos models — long criticized for lagging behind Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips, which are headed to North America — reigniting longstanding complaints about unequal treatment.
Despite this skepticism, Samsung is moving forward with a dual-chip strategy for the S26 series. The upcoming Exynos 2600 faces doubts rooted in years of underwhelming performance of its predecessors, a history that led Samsung to rely solely on Snapdragon chips in recent flagship releases.
It is widely suspected by industry observers that the S26 and S26 Plus will be mounted with the Exynos 2600 in Europe and Korea, while the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 Elite will be installed in the same models across the United States, China and Japan. For the S26 Ultra, Qualcomm chips will be used across all markets.
The news comes as Exynos processors post significantly higher scores than previous generations on the Geekbench benchmarking platform — numbers that reportedly put them on par with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite and Apple’s A18 Pro. Yet the strong benchmarks have done little to win over consumers, many of whom remain skeptical after repeated experiences with overheating and performance issues in past Exynos-powered devices — problems that ultimately pushed Samsung to rely on Qualcomm chips in key markets.
A September survey by global tech outlet PhoneArena on the upcoming S26 series showed that fewer than one in 10 respondents chose Exynos over Snapdragon. The outlet noted that Snapdragon is considered superior in overall stability, including battery efficiency and AI performance.
Equal price, unequal hardware
For years, Exynos has had an on-and-off presence in the Galaxy lineup, largely due to persistent stability issues that fueled growing consumer complaints worldwide.
"Due to issues such as kernel security vulnerabilities, overheating and low yields, Exynos chips have historically been used mainly in domestic models, while most overseas units were equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon," a September report by Korean firm CTT Research said.
For the S23 and S25 models, Samsung chose Snapdragon over its in-house chips. But when Exynos returned in the base and Plus variants of the S24, criticism quickly resurfaced.
On Samsung’s European Union community forum, one user in May 2024 reported that their S24’s battery “wouldn’t last a day” even with light app usage.
"We were told it would be different this time, so many of us decided to upgrade... for this,” the user wrote. “That’s not how you treat customers. Either price Exynos models lower to reflect the difference, or treat everyone equally and use a single chipset across the board.”
Consumer backlash over regional differences in chip allocation has long been a point of contention. During the Galaxy S20 era, a petition opposing the installation of the Exynos 990 in certain markets amassed more than 49,000 signatures across Europe and beyond, calling on Samsung to abandon Exynos entirely and adopt Snapdragon globally.
![An online petition that opposed Exynos adoption in Galaxy lineups due to poor performances [SCREEN CAPTURE]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/12/04/96703497-5c54-43af-9bc3-001f263472c1.jpg)
An online petition that opposed Exynos adoption in Galaxy lineups due to poor performances [SCREEN CAPTURE]
Many users still recall the 2022 Game Optimizing Service scandal, when the feature was found to throttle the performance of roughly 10,000 apps and games — while leaving benchmarking tools like Geekbench untouched — allowing devices to post artificially elevated scores to reduce the gap with Qualcomm.
In Korea as well, negative sentiment has been widespread. A recurring grievance among Exynos-market users has been Samsung’s decision to reserve Snapdragon models for the crucial North American market while offering Exynos-equipped units elsewhere — all while charging the same price across regions.
"If they're so confident of the 2600 why are they using the 8 Elite Gen 5 in the US?" one Reddit user posted in the subreddit for the Galaxy lineup, following the news of the re-adoption of the dual-chipset approach for the S26. "Another cost cutting exercise by Samsung and I'll probably move to [iPhone] now."
Another commenter described regions receiving Exynos-powered devices as getting "second-rate treatment" despite paying the same price. The poster added, "If they are that confident, let them prove it by using it everywhere."
Exynos comeback effort from Samsung
The highest leaked Geekbench benchmark results for single-core and multicore scores came to 4,217 and 13,482 for Exynos 2600 prototypes, respectively, raising expectations of the company’s first 2-nanometer gate-all-around process. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, meanwhile, is rumored to have clocked a single-core score — measuring such basic functions as app launch speed, web browsing responsiveness and animation smoothness — of 3,843, while its multicore score, tracking activation for gaming, video rendering and AI functions, is reportedly 12,217.
![A passerby looks over Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy S25 series at a Samsung store on Aug. 5. According to Samsung, its Galaxy S25 series, released in February this year, surpassed 3 million units in domestic sales as of Aug. 1. Reaching 3 million units more than two months faster than its predecessor, the S25 series set the record for the fastest sales milestone among all Galaxy S-series 5G smartphones. [NEWS1]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/12/04/93f0e627-2983-4c59-9abe-ab5e5f6a5b62.jpg)
A passerby looks over Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy S25 series at a Samsung store on Aug. 5. According to Samsung, its Galaxy S25 series, released in February this year, surpassed 3 million units in domestic sales as of Aug. 1. Reaching 3 million units more than two months faster than its predecessor, the S25 series set the record for the fastest sales milestone among all Galaxy S-series 5G smartphones. [NEWS1]
For Samsung’s System LSI and Foundry divisions, the Exynos 2600 is particularly important following this year’s setback, when the Galaxy S25 series abandoned plans to use the Exynos 2500. Unsurprisingly, the S25 lineup performed exceptionally well, even helping Samsung expand its share of the global premium smartphone market, according to Counterpoint Research. In the $700 to $999 price range, Samsung's share stood at 29 percent between July and August, ranking second behind Apple and marking a 12 percentage point increase from a year earlier. In Korea alone, S25 models surpassed the one million-unit mark in just 21 days, the fastest pace on record.
Looking ahead, multiple reports, including ZDNet Korea, expect Qualcomm to hold 75 percent of the chip share across the upcoming Galaxy S26 lineup, with Samsung’s Exynos accounting for the remaining 25 percent. A successful comeback for Exynos is therefore critical, not only to reduce Samsung’s dependence on rising Qualcomm processor costs, but also to secure a future role for in-house chips in next year’s foldable devices.
Samsung’s procurement from January to September reached a record 10.93 trillion won ($7.4 billion), up 25.5 percent from the same period in 2024, as prices for general-purpose chips used in PCs and smartphones rose on the back of a shift in production in the focus of capacity to focus on high-performance memory products with the global AI-driven demand.
BY LEE JAE-LIM [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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