Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S26 series will mark a major turning point for the company, not just in raw performance, but in how it ties users deeper into the Galaxy ecosystem.
The Korean giant will begin mass production of its new Exynos 2600 chip next month, with the flagship processor confirmed to power the Galaxy S26 Ultra.
Built on Samsung's 2nm GAA process, the Exynos 2600 reportedly delivers dramatic performance gains over rivals, including Apple's A19 Pro and Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 Elite.
According to Samsung's internal testing, the chip's neural processing unit (NPU) performance, critical for on-device generative AI tasks, is more than six times faster than Apple's A19 Pro.
Multi-core CPU performance is said to be 15% stronger, and graphics up to 75% higher in some benchmarks.
These gains position Samsung to reclaim ground in both premium smartphone and semiconductor markets, as the company looks to close the gap with TSMC in advanced chip manufacturing.
Alongside the new chip, Samsung is preparing to launch its own paid cloud storage platform - a direct rival to Apple's iCloud and Google Drive - as part of the One UI 8.5 rollout early next year.
The upcoming Samsung Cloud upgrade will introduce 49GB and 199GB paid tiers, replacing Microsoft OneDrive as the default photo and video backup solution.
Leaked screenshots shared by X user @DevOfIpos (below) show early test versions of the service, including pricing placeholders and new subscription menus labelled "Change storage plans."
The leaks confirm Samsung is testing in-house backups for photos, videos, and app data, which is a major step toward consolidating all user content within its own ecosystem.
The move signals a major pivot toward in-house services designed to keep Galaxy users within Samsung's ecosystem.
It could finally bring the company's ecosystem closer to Apple's long-standing "walled garden" model.