Samsung’s next wave of flagship mobile processors is shaping up to be a story about heat, efficiency, and a serious push to close the gap with the best Android chips on the market. While the Exynos 2600 is expected to land first and power the base Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S26+ in select regions, early details about the Exynos 2700 suggest Samsung already has a bigger, more refined plan for 2027.
A new leak claims the Exynos 2700 carries the internal codename “Ulysses” and is being designed with one major priority: fixing thermal bottlenecks. In other words, Samsung appears to be targeting the classic smartphone performance problem where peak power looks great on paper, but sustained speed drops once the chip heats up. The leaked info points to improvements across multiple layers at once, including manufacturing process, CPU architecture, and physical packaging.
Next-gen 2nm SF2P process could bring higher clock speeds and better efficiency
According to the report, Exynos 2700 will be built on Samsung’s SF2P process, described as a next-generation version of its 2nm Gate-All-Around (GAA) technology used in Exynos 2600. GAA is a modern 3D transistor design where the gate surrounds the channel on all sides, helping improve control and allowing lower voltage operation. That typically translates into better efficiency and potentially higher performance at similar power levels.
The SF2P node is said to deliver about a 12% jump in overall performance and up to a 25% reduction in energy consumption compared to the prior SF2 node. One of the headline changes is an expected increase in the prime CPU core frequency to 4.20GHz, up from a reported 3.90GHz peak on Exynos 2600.
ARM’s next CPU cores, and a possible big IPC gain
On the CPU side, Exynos 2700 is rumored to move to ARM’s next core generation, referred to here as Cortex-C2 (ARM has been shifting naming conventions, so the final launch branding may differ). If Samsung adopts these new C2-class cores, the leak suggests an instructions-per-clock (IPC) improvement in the neighborhood of 35%, which is a meaningful leap for real-world responsiveness and compute-heavy tasks.
While the leak doesn’t confirm the exact CPU cluster layout, it’s possible Samsung sticks to a familiar 1+3+6 configuration similar to Exynos 2600. For reference, Exynos 2600 has been described with a prime core plus multiple performance and efficiency cores, along with an Xclipse 960 GPU, ray tracing support, an AI engine with a 32K MAC NPU, and LPDDR5X memory support.
If the claimed IPC uplift is paired with a 4.20GHz prime core, the report estimates a theoretical Geekbench 6 single-core score around 4,800 and a multi-core score around 15,000. That would represent a sizable jump versus Exynos 2600—roughly 40% higher single-core and 30% higher multi-core, based on the figures cited.
The biggest change may be packaging: FOWLP-SbS and a unified heat path
The most interesting part of the leak isn’t just faster cores or a smaller process. It’s how Samsung may be planning to keep the chip cooler under stress.
Exynos 2700 is rumored to use FOWLP-SbS (Fan-Out Wafer Level Packaging, Side-by-Side), along with a unified Heat Path Block. The key idea is that a copper-based heat sink structure would cover the entire application processor area and also factor in DRAM cooling in a shared thermal design. That’s important because sustained gaming performance, camera processing, and on-device AI workloads are often limited more by heat than by short bursts of peak speed.
This approach appears to build on Exynos 2600’s copper-based thermal solution, but with a more complete implementation. The leak claims Exynos 2600 makes direct heat sink contact with only part of the AP, while Exynos 2700’s design could extend coverage across the full chip to improve heat dissipation and reduce throttling.
Xclipse graphics, plus LPDDR6 and UFS 5.0 for faster throughput
On graphics, Exynos 2700 is expected to continue using Samsung’s AMD RDNA-based Xclipse GPU strategy. It may also benefit from platform upgrades like LPDDR6 memory and UFS 5.0 storage, which can improve bandwidth and reduce bottlenecks that impact gaming, high-resolution video capture, and AI workloads.
The leak suggests a GPU performance increase of around 30% to 40%, helped in part by faster data movement across the system. LPDDR6 is noted as supporting throughput up to 14.4Gbps, which could be a meaningful step up for sustained GPU and NPU workloads.
There’s also an interesting side note: some reports have hinted Samsung might eventually pivot to an in-house GPU with a future Exynos 2800, but Exynos 2700 is still expected to stick with the Xclipse direction.
Big unknown: integrated modem or external modem?
Even with these details, major questions remain—especially around connectivity. The leak notes it’s unclear whether Exynos 2700 will use an integrated modem. That decision matters because integrated modems are usually more power efficient and take up less board space, while external modems can simplify some aspects of chip manufacturing and potentially help production yields.
Why Exynos 2700 could matter for future Galaxy flagships
If these rumored specs and thermal improvements become reality, Exynos 2700 could be positioned as a much stronger competitor to Qualcomm’s next flagship Snapdragon platform at the time. For Samsung, a more competitive Exynos is more than bragging rights—it can reduce reliance on expensive third-party chips and give Samsung more control over performance tuning, thermals, and long-term platform features across its flagship phones.
For now, though, it’s still early. Exynos 2700 is reportedly aimed at 2027, leaving plenty of time for changes in process technology, CPU and GPU configuration, modem decisions, and final performance targets. But the direction is clear: Samsung appears to be betting that better heat management and more efficient design will be the key to unlocking consistent flagship-level performance.
