According to The Bell, fab-out is slated for late October or early November, just in time for the Galaxy S26’s early 2026 launch window.

The numbers still aren’t sparkling. Trial runs earlier this year delivered miserable 30 per cent yields, but Samsung has apparently pushed that figure closer to 50 per cent. That’s progress, though hardly the “ideal range” needed if the firm wants to flog wafers to outside customers instead of just propping up its phones.

Compared with Samsung’s 3nm GAA (SF3), SF2 is supposed to deliver a 12 per cent performance bump and 25 per cent efficiency gain. That could give the Exynos 2600 enough firepower to stand toe-to-toe with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, MediaTek’s Dimensity 9500 and Apple’s A19 Pro.

As usual, Samsung will split the spoils regionally. Europe and its home turf in South Korea are expected to get Exynos-powered S26 handsets, while the US and China will see Snapdragon variants. It’s the same two-chip shuffle the company has danced for years, much to the annoyance of buyers who feel stuck with the “second-choice” silicon.

Samsung has been throwing everything at its 2nm roadmap. The second-generation SF2P design was taped out back in June, and insiders say SF2P+ should arrive within two years to meet “insane demand” for cutting-edge wafers.

If the Exynos 2600 does arrive this year as rumoured, Samsung will have timed it neatly to crash the party against Apple’s A19 Pro and Qualcomm’s latest Elite Gen 5.