What’s Happened? A fresh leak about Samsung’s upcoming Exynos 2600 chipset suggests major upgrades to its camera engine, potentially benefitting mobile filmmakers and creators.
- According to X user @SPYGO19726, citing internal documents and conversations with engineers familiar with the matter, Samsung is redesigning its entire imaging stack — likely including the image signal processor (ISP) and related components.
- The overhaul reportedly brings AI-driven image synthesis and enhanced RAW control under one unified ISP–NPU pipeline.
- Per the leak, the Exynos 2600’s ISP will be capable of handling up to 320MP from a single camera sensor or three concurrent 108MP camera streams. For comparison, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 supports three 48MP streams.
Why is this important? The Galaxy S26 series isn’t expected to feature major camera sensor upgrades, so the rumored ISP improvements come as a relief to enthusiasts and prospective buyers.
- The ISP is also said to support concurrent image capture from up to four sensors. While multi-camera photo and video recording is already possible on smartphones, these improvements could focus on composite image capture, combining data from multiple sensors for enhanced detail and dynamic range.
- However, I’m more interested in the claim about five-frame HDR fusion and 14-bit RAW capture capability. While the former could merge multiple exposures to achieve a noticeable improvement in dynamic range, 14-bit RAW capture (vs. 12-bit RAW control on current flagships) would provide greater tonal depth and flexibility for post-processing in professional editing tools.
- Additionally, the leak mentions support for native 8K 60 fps HDR10+ video, which would be a breakthrough for smartphone cameras. While 8K recording is currently available on a few flagships, such as the Galaxy S25 Ultra, OnePlus 15, and vivo X300 series—it’s limited to 30 fps.
Why should I care? For a smartphone ISP to handle 8K 60 fps HDR10+ video, it must achieve extremely high data throughput. The leak claims the Exynos 2600’s ISP–NPU internal bandwidth reaches 1.8 TB/s.
- If true, that means professional photographers, videographers, and creators could expect significant gains in dynamic range, color accuracy, and editing flexibility.
- While it’s unlikely that any Galaxy S26 model will ship with a 320MP sensor (the S26 Ultra is rumored to retain its 200MP main camera), this ISP upgrade suggests Samsung is preparing for much higher data processing demands, resulting in tangible improvements in overall image and video quality.
OK, what’s next? If Samsung successfully implements and optimizes these features for the Galaxy S26 lineup, it could mark a major leap forward in smartphone imaging. There’s also a chance that the smartphone will use AI extensively, similar to how Google is currently using Gemini AI for pixel-level upscaling on the Pixel 10 Pro. The Exynos 2600 is expected to power the S26, S26+, and S26 Ultra in most regions, while U.S. models—at least the Ultra—will likely use the latest Snapdragon chipset (in its customary ‘for Galaxy‘ variant).
