Major smartphone brands are racing to turn phones into agentic AI assistants that can do more than answer prompts. Google gave a clear preview of that future at its recent Android show, and Samsung has been moving in the same direction with Galaxy AI. Now, a new leak suggests Samsung may be planning a hardware upgrade that could push more AI tasks directly onto future Galaxy phones.
That sounds useful on paper. More on-device AI could mean faster responses, stronger privacy, and fewer features that need to reach out to the cloud. There is also a possible downside. If Samsung ties its next wave of AI tools to newer Exynos hardware, some of those features could stay locked to future phones such as the Galaxy S28 series, while recent flagships are left with a lighter version of the same software experience.
What could Samsung be planning for Exynos?
Tipster Jukan on X claims Samsung is working on a hardware-level upgrade called Multi Stacked FOWLP that could improve how future Exynos chips handle AI workloads. In simple terms, it combines Samsung’s vertical memory stacking method with fan-out wafer-level packaging, which could bring memory closer to the main chip and help data move faster between the two.
On-device AI tasks need to process large amounts of data quickly. Faster memory access could help features such as image editing, live translation, summaries, and assistant-style actions run more smoothly without relying as much on the cloud.
The upgrade could arrive as early as the Exynos 2800, although the Exynos 2900 is also possible. Since the Galaxy S27 series is expected to use the Exynos 2700 in some markets, we are likely looking at the Galaxy S28 or S29 series to feature this high-bandwidth memory configuration.
Could older Galaxy phones miss out again?
Better on-device AI hardware gives Samsung a technical reason to limit some features to newer Galaxy phones. Some tools may genuinely need faster memory or stronger AI processing to work well. Others, however, could simply be used to make the latest flagships stand apart from phones that are only a year or two old.
Samsung has already shown signs of this with the recent One UI 8.5 update. Galaxy S25 users did receive the update, but several Galaxy S26 features that many users expected were left out.
If Samsung goes down this route, Galaxy AI could become one of the biggest reasons to upgrade sooner than planned. Long software support may keep older flagships secure and usable, but it may not guarantee access to every major feature future Galaxy phones receive.