Taking the 2024 global mobile phone market data as an example, in terms of brand structure, Samsung maintained its leading position globally with a 19% market share, followed closely by Apple at 18%, Xiaomi in third place with 14%, and OPPO and vivo each accounting for 8%. As the world's highest-selling mobile phone manufacturer, Samsung possesses significant advantages in hardware integration, supply chain management, and global channel layout. However, a long-overlooked contradiction is becoming increasingly apparent: this global sales champion's core flagship products heavily rely on Qualcomm's chip solutions.
From the entire S25 series equipped with Qualcomm's customized Snapdragon 8 Ultra (for Galaxy) mobile platform, to the A series mid-range models using the Snapdragon 6/7 series mobile platforms, and the Z Flip and Z Fold foldable screen products continuing to use the Snapdragon platform, almost all of Samsung's products are built on Qualcomm's technology.
Recently, CNMO noticed that the future of Samsung's self-developed chips seems to have taken a turn for the better—the Exynos 2600 has reappeared on the Geekbench benchmark platform, achieving a new high score.
The Most Powerful Samsung Exynos Chip
In the latest tests, the Exynos 2600 chip achieved a Geekbench single-core score of 3455 and a multi-core score of 11621, a significant improvement over the 3309 and 11256 scores initially revealed in August.
More strategically significant is that the Exynos 2600's performance surpasses that of the current flagship 5th generation Snapdragon 8 Ultra (Xiaomi 17 scores 3078 in single-core and 9162 in multi-core). Although the Exynos 2600 was tested on an engineering sample, and actual device performance may vary due to factors such as heat dissipation and system tuning, this theoretical advantage is still a milestone. It signifies that Samsung's Exynos chips now possess the potential to directly compete with Qualcomm's top-tier SoCs in terms of performance.
From an architectural design perspective, the Exynos 2600 adopts a "1+3+6" tri-cluster architecture, consisting of one Cortex-X930 super core, three Cortex-A730 large cores, and six Cortex-A730S medium cores. This design differentiates it from the "2+4+4" architecture of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Ultra Gen 5.
The Strategic Significance of the Exynos 2600
Previously, Samsung's reliance on Qualcomm chips was both a proactive choice driven by product stability and global compatibility, and a practical compromise due to limitations in its self-developed chip technology. The entire S25 series, to be released in 2025, will be equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Ultra mobile platform, partly because the Exynos 2500's 3nm process yield did not meet mass production standards. In today's increasingly competitive high-end market, this technological shortcoming cannot be ignored. While Apple continues to lead performance charts with its A-series chips, and manufacturers like Xiaomi are accelerating their self-developed chip strategies, Samsung's position as the world's number one in sales will lack sufficient technological support if it cannot provide a self-developed core platform with comparable competitiveness in the long run.
However, the Geekbench scores of the Exynos 2600 have brought a turning point to this predicament. Data shows that its single-core score is 3455 and its multi-core score is 11621, leading Qualcomm's current flagship Snapdragon 8 Ultra by approximately 12% and 24.6% respectively—a performance leap rarely seen in the mobile chip industry.
In the long run, if the Exynos 2600 successfully enters mass production, it will significantly change Samsung's chip procurement logic. In the past few years, Samsung has paid Qualcomm tens of billions of dollars annually for chip procurement, not only compressing its overall profit margins but also creating potential risks to supply chain security. Once the Exynos 2600 achieves stable mass production and expands its application scope, Samsung is expected to significantly reduce its dependence on external SoCs, saving billions of dollars in procurement costs annually. This vertical integration advantage will directly translate into greater pricing flexibility and market competitiveness, giving it a more advantageous strategic position in the global high-end smartphone market.
Market Landscape Restructuring
The potential rise of the Exynos 2600 will not only impact Samsung itself but may also profoundly influence the competitive logic of the global mobile chip industry. Currently, the core SoC supply for the Android camp is highly concentrated in Qualcomm and MediaTek, with most manufacturers lacking independent alternatives and constrained by chip manufacturers' pace in procurement negotiations, product planning, and feature customization. If Samsung can successfully achieve mass production of the Exynos 2600 and stably apply it to its flagship product line, it will disrupt this established pattern.
For Samsung, the core value of this shift lies in the return of "choice." When Samsung possesses its own self-developed chips with acceptable performance and controllable yield, its cooperation with Qualcomm will shift from "dependence" to "option." At the supply chain level, Samsung can flexibly adjust the usage ratio of Exynos and Snapdragon platforms according to market demand, cost structure, and regional adaptation requirements. For example, deploying the Exynos version in cost-sensitive markets while continuing to use Snapdragon solutions in regions like North America that rely on specific baseband support. This flexibility not only enhances supply chain resilience but also provides stronger bargaining power in business negotiations with Qualcomm, potentially even pushing Qualcomm to make more concessions on pricing, technical support, and customized features.
From an industry perspective, if Samsung achieves a technological breakthrough with the Exynos 2600, it will provide other leading manufacturers with a new development paradigm: enhancing market competitiveness through vertical integration of core technologies. Although the Exynos 2600 is unlikely to be sold externally, its success will encourage more brands to increase investment in self-developed chips. Especially with the increasing importance of differentiated features such as AI, image processing, and energy efficiency optimization, chips are no longer just performance carriers but also symbols of a brand's technological strength.
In conclusion, the Exynos 2600 is not just a return to the market for a single chip, but a crucial test of whether Samsung can move from a "manufacturing giant" to an "innovation leader." In the context of the accelerated premiumization and intelligentization of smartphones globally, whoever controls the core chips controls the future.
