Samsung has taken an odd decision by not integrating a dedicated modem within its flagship Exynos 2600 chip, presumably in a bid to simplify the AP's manufacturing process. Yet, this design choice might come at a high cost for the South Korean giant, potentially neutralizing much of the chip's real-world efficiency-related bragging rights.
Samsung's Exynos 2600 sports an external Shannon 5410 modem
As we noted recently, Samsung's new Exynos 2600 chip features:
- 1x C1-Ultra core running at 3.80GHz
- 3x C1-Pro cores running at 3.25GHz
- 6x C1-Pro cores running at 2.75GHz
- Samsung Xclipse 960 GPU (clock speeds undisclosed) with ray-tracing support
- AI Engine with 32K Mac Neural Processing Unit (NPU)
- LPDDR5X RAM support
The Exynos 2600 is Samsung's first chip that leverages its 2nm GAA process, replete with a dedicated Heat Path Block (HPB), a copper-based heat sink attached directly to the AP.
Samsung claims that the Exynos 2600's CPU computing performance has increased by up to 39 percent relative to the previous-gen Exynos 2500 chip, while its NPU's performance has increased by a whopping 113 percent, and its GPU's performance by up to 50 percent. Moreover, the HPB reportedly keeps the chip cooler by around 30 percent for the same workloads.
These are impressive numbers by any definition. It remains to be seen, however, if the real-world performance of the Exynos 2600 matches these claimed numbers.
Samsung's decision not to integrate a modem within the Exynos 2600, as per the reporting by Elec, is causing some skepticism as to the chip's overall efficiency. A separate tidbit from Erencan Yilmaz suggests the South Korean behemoth intends to rely on an external modem - Shannon 5410 - for the job.
As external modems are substantially less efficient as compared to their integrated counterparts, it remains to be seen how the Exynos 2600's real-world performance holds up.
Of course, by relying on an external modem, Samsung was able to simplify the overall manufacturing process for the Exynos 2600 chip, helping to boost its yields in the process, which are likely at above-satisfactory levels right now, especially as the South Korean behemoth intends to employ the AP within next year's Galaxy S26 lineup (base and the plus models) and Galaxy Z Flip 8.
About the author: Writing is my one incontrovertible passion. Over the past six years, he has authored over 2,200 distinct articles on financial and tech-related topics, spanning nearly 1 million words. And he has been a member of Wcctech mobile team since 2025. As an alumnus of the University of Toronto, Rotman Commerce Program, I bring nuance, in-depth knowledge, and a unique perspective to every topic that I cover. When I'm not writing, I'm traveling the world, exploring hidden confectionaries and restaurants as an aspiring food connoisseur.
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