Samsung Looks to Reduce CPU Speeds of Exynos 2600

Samsung has made a surprising change to its upcoming Exynos 2600 chip, expected to power the Galaxy S26 series. The company appears to have reduced the frequency across CPU cores ahead of mass production. This move might impact the performance of the flagship chip but could also improve battery life and heat management.

New Exynos 2600 CPU speeds surface ahead of mass production

A few weeks ago, Exynos 2600 running on a prototype device showed up on Geekbench 6. The listing revealed the chip will feature a 10-core CPU configuration with one prime core at 3.80GHz, three performance cores at 3.26GHz, and six efficiency cores at 2.76GHz. It achieved a single-core CPU score of 3,309 and a multi-core score of 11,256.

Now, a fresh Geekbench 6 listing (via Alchimist Leaks) shows that Samsung has underclocked the Exynos 2600. The new setup features a prime core at 3.55GHz, three performance cores at 2.96GHz, and six efficiency cores at 2.46GHz. As such, the single-core score dropped to 3,047, while the multi-core score slipped to 10,025.

It’s unclear what factors led Samsung to make this change in recent weeks. Interestingly, this comes just as the Korean foundry is gearing up to begin mass production of the Exynos 2600. Normally, when a CPU runs at its maximum frequency, it can generate substantial heat and increase power consumption. The company may have noticed these issues with its earlier setup and hence decided to lower the clock speeds.

Samsung will make Exynos 2600 using its in-house 2nm process. It will feature a dedicated Heat Path Block (HPB) to dissipate heat during demanding tasks. The company is expected to use this flagship chipset in all models of the upcoming Galaxy S26 series in select regions, including Europe. Meanwhile, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5-powered flagships will likely make their way to markets like the US, Japan, and China.

So, Samsung needs to make sure the Exynos 2600 performs on par with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. According to recent internal tests, Exynos 2600’s neural processing unit (NPU) performs about 30% better than Qualcomm’s latest flagship. We’ll let you know if more details about the upcoming Exynos chip surface on the web.