Smartphone buyers eyeing this year’s upgrades may want to pause. A quiet but profound shift is looming in chip manufacturing: the move to 2-nanometre process technology. And next year’s flagship devices from Apple, Samsung and Honor could be the first to showcase it.
For users, that could mean real gains in performance. More importantly, we could see smartphones with meaningfully improved battery life.
A “process node” refers to the manufacturing scale of the transistors etched into a chip. Each shrink – from 5nm to 3nm and now towards 2nm – allows more transistors to be packed into the same area. That density translates into higher performance, greater efficiency – or both.
The transition to 2nm isn’t just a size reduction. It marks the adoption by TSMC and Samsung – the biggest semiconductor fabricators – of new “gate-all-around” transistor structures. This curbs energy leakage and lets transistors switch faster with less voltage.
On paper, TSMC promises up to 30% less power consumption at the same performance compared to its current 3nm process. For a smartphone running a 5 000 mAh battery – the size currently favoured by Apple and Samsung in their flagship models – that could mean an extra hour or more of screen-on time or noticeably lower overnight drain.
Samsung’s own foundry has been racing to stay relevant in leading-edge nodes. Reports from Notebookcheck and SamMobile suggest that the company is developing the Exynos 2600 on a 2nm process for its Galaxy S26 series, due in early 2026. One report even speculates that the S26 Ultra may ship globally with the 2nm Exynos rather than Qualcomm’s Snapdragon – a reversal of recent years when Samsung relied heavily on Snapdragon at the high end.
Mass production
The Korea Herald has gone further, citing insiders who claim Samsung could “fully pivot” to Exynos for its next Ultra device. Whether Samsung has the yields and efficiency to pull that off remains to be seen, but the intent is clear: stake a claim as the first to ship a 2nm phone.
Taiwan’s TSMC, the world’s dominant contract chip maker, is widely expected to begin mass production of 2nm wafers in the coming months. Qualcomm, which outsources production of its Snapdragon designs to TSMC, will almost certainly line up behind that schedule. If Samsung tries to go first with its own 2nm Exynos, Qualcomm will not be far behind.
Read: iPhone 17 price surprise in South Africa
The bigger question is whether early 2nm chips will actually ship in volume, or if we’ll see limited, region-specific launches while production ramps. Yields at new nodes tend to start low, which can make chips expensive and scarce.
Apple, meanwhile, has long used its iPhone launches to showcase new nodes, often securing TSMC’s first batches and next year’s iPhone 18 models are likely to be the first iPhones to use chips from the Taiwanese firm’s 2nm process node.
For consumers, the stakes are straightforward. The 3nm chips in today’s flagships (Galaxy S25, iPhone 17) are already fast enough for nearly every task. What limits user experience most isn’t speed but endurance. A shift that trims 10% or 20% (or more) off the processor’s power draw could be the first material boost in smartphone battery life in years.
That doesn’t mean this year’s devices are poor buys. And manufacturers sometimes use efficiency gains on more power-hungry displays, AI processing or camera systems – the S26 Ultra is rumoured to feature a brighter, 144Hz display. The real-world outcome depends on how each brand balances performance with battery life.
Read: iPhone 17 price surprise in South Africa
With the shift by some manufacturers to ultra-thin phones – Samsung and Apple are notable with their S25 Edge and iPhone Air models – the 2nm transition can’t come soon enough. Expect battery life improvements from the second generation of these devices in 2026. The shift to the 2nm node could also be a factor behind Apple’s rumoured decision to launch a folding phone next September, eight years after Samsung pioneered the foldables space with the original Galaxy Z Fold.
The bottom line
Smartphone innovation has slowed in recent years. Screens are sharper with higher refresh rates and cameras are incrementally better, but endurance hasn’t leapt forward. The 2nm transition, coupled with new transistor designs, is the first big shift in years that could change that balance.
Read: Samsung unveils the ultra-slim Galaxy S25 Edge
So, if you’re considering a high-end phone upgrade, a little patience may be rewarded. By this time next year, the first wave of 2nm devices from Samsung, Apple and Chinese manufacturers like Honor should be on the shelves. – © 2025 NewsCentral Media
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