Samsung’s new Exynos 2600 System on Chip (SoC) is expected to debut alongside the Galaxy S26 on February 25. The chip is anticipated to compete with, and in some cases surpass, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, according to previous leaks for the Galaxy. This development underscores the ongoing rivalry between the two tech giants in the mobile processor space.
Arm has now officially confirmed that the Exynos 2600 will support Scalable Matrix Extensions (SME2), providing insight into the chip’s capabilities. Arm states that this will accelerate AI-powered applications, such as object detection, by up to 70%. The integration of SME2 highlights the increasing importance of on-device AI processing for improved performance and efficiency.
As a reminder, Arm introduced SME2 alongside its new Lumex CPU cores – the C1-Ultra, C1-Premium, C1-Pro, and C1-Nano. The Exynos 2600 will likely utilize a combination of these cores. Multiple Geekbench listings indicate a 10-core processor, and based on previous Exynos chips, it is expected to include one Lumex C1-Ultra core, three Lumex C1-Premium cores, and six Lumex C1-Nano cores.
“As AI on device becomes a central element of the mobile experience, efficiency and responsiveness are increasingly crucial. Built on Arm compute subsystems with SME2-enabled C1-Ultra and C1-Pro, Exynos 2600 leverages SME2 to extend the potential of CPU-based AI, reducing the latency associated with offloading to discrete accelerators and making it well-suited for short, interactive, and real-time AI workloads.”
Arm’s statement focuses solely on the C1-Ultra and C1-Pro cores, implicitly suggesting that the Exynos 2600 might only employ a combination of the two. This is not entirely unexpected, as incorporating the Lumex C1-Premium cores could strain the chip’s already limited thermal budget. Samsung is proceeding cautiously, as the success of the Exynos 2600 is critical to the future of Samsung Foundry’s SF2 node and its ability to attract original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) like Qualcomm and Nvidia.
