Core Insights - Samsung's mobile division (MX) has reached an agreement with its LSI division to equip the base models of Galaxy S26 and S26+ with the self-developed Exynos 2600 chip, which is priced 20-30 USD lower than Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, aiming to strengthen its negotiation position with Qualcomm and enhance mobile business profit margins [1][4] Group 1 - The discount on the Exynos 2600 applies to the initial supply, with future pricing to be renegotiated, but the current low price significantly boosts the mobile division's profits [4] - The Galaxy S26 Ultra will exclusively feature Qualcomm's flagship chip, while other S26 models in the US and certain regions will also use Snapdragon solutions; the base S26 and S26+ will prioritize the Exynos 2600 in the EU, South Korea, and developing markets [4] Group 2 - The Exynos 2600 utilizes Samsung's 2nm GAA process and incorporates heat conduction blocking technology (HPB), although there are industry concerns regarding its yield; reports vary with some indicating yield issues limiting mass production while others claim stable yields with a 30% improvement in efficiency and thermal control, alongside enhanced AI performance due to NPU upgrades [4] - Qualcomm's flagship chip has consistently outperformed Samsung's Exynos series in performance due to its custom CPU cores developed in recent years [4]

Core Viewpoint - MediaTek has launched its new flagship mobile SoC, the Dimensity 9500, which will debut in the vivo X300 series smartphones [1] Group 1: Product Features - The Dimensity 9500 utilizes TSMC's N3P process and features a full big-core CPU design, including the world's first Arm C1 series CPU cluster and G1-Ultra GPU, along with new dual NPU and ISP image processing units [1] - The CPU architecture consists of 1 C1-Ultra super core at 4.21GHz, 3 C1-Premium super cores, and 4 C1-Pro big cores, supporting 4-channel UFS4.1 flash storage [3] - Single-core performance has improved by 32% and multi-core performance by 17% compared to the previous generation, with peak power consumption for super cores reduced by 55% and multi-core peak power consumption down by 37% [3] Group 2: Performance Metrics - MediaTek's lab data shows the Dimensity 9500 achieving a GeekBench single-core score of 4007 and a multi-core score of 11217 [4] - Real-world testing by @Zealer reported a single-core score of 3610 and a multi-core score of 10765, indicating that Android flagship performance is now comparable to Apple's current flagship [4] Group 3: Market Position and Future Plans - The first smartphones featuring the Dimensity 9500 are expected to launch in Q4 2025, with vivo's X300 series and OPPO's Find X9 series confirmed to use the new chip [6] - MediaTek is negotiating with TSMC to produce some chips in the U.S. to mitigate potential tariff risks, particularly for automotive and sensitive application chips [7] - MediaTek has announced further collaboration with TSMC to be among the first to adopt TSMC's 2nm process technology, with a new SoC design expected to achieve an 18% performance increase and a 36% reduction in power consumption compared to the current N3E process [7]