Samsung received a lot of flak for its sub-par Exynos chips over the years, but the company seems to be improving. The Exynos 2400 is a lot better than previous Exynos chips. And AMD helped Samsung achieve this feat thanks to its pretty powerful GPU. However, Samsung could ditch AMD for its in-house GPU for the Galaxy S26.
Galaxy S26 could use Exynos processor with Samsung's own GPU
According to a report from pretty reliable tipster Roland Quandt, Samsung is developing the next-generation Exynos (maybe renamed later?) chip, which carries model number S5E9955 and has an AMD RDNA-based GPU. Next, the South Korean company is reportedly aiming to release its own smartphone processor for the Galaxy S26, which will reportedly have its in-house GPU. This means Samsung will ditch AMD GPUs for its own GPUs.
Samsung is reportedly building a pretty powerful and efficient processor for the Galaxy S25. It would be fabricated using Samsung's second-generation 3nm process node. Rumors claim it is such a major improvement compared to previous chips that Samsung could even use a new name and discontinue the Exynos branding.
The company seems to have created a separate team of over 1,000 engineers to work with the System LSI team on co-development and optimization. If the company could achieve its goal, it would be a huge moment.
Author's Note: Making a smartphone chip is extremely difficult. Apart from Apple and Huawei, Samsung is the only other brand that has been able to make smartphones and design chips inside them. In fact, Samsung is one step ahead of those firms. It can even manufacture the processors it designs. Apple and Huawei can't do those things. It can even design and manufacture RAM, storage, displays, batteries, and camera sensors used in phones.
However, Samsung's in-house smartphone processors haven't been very good. Apple, MediaTek, and Qualcomm are far ahead in terms of overall performance and efficiency. If Samsung can outdo even one of those rival brands, it will be a huge accomplishment. It can then bring more vertical integration, better features, and longer software support to its phones, smartwatches, tablets, and other devices.
