TL; DR
- Samsung has reportedly delayed the launch of the Galaxy S26 series to streamline its Exynos 2600 chipset.
- The baseline Galaxy S26 with the Exynos 2600 (2nm) SoC scores 3,197/11,012 points in the single/multi-core Geekbench 6 CPU performance test.
- At least on the benchmarking platform, the Exynos 2600 and the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 appear to be on par, with the former running slightly behind in single-core performance.
Samsung is set to release the new Galaxy S26 series on February 25, 2026. While we already know about the models included in the series, about their specifications (the entire spec list is out by this point), and a couple of features that might accompany the new smartphones (including Privacy Display).
What still appears to be a mystery, however, is the choice of chipsets for different regions. Samsung has reportedly delayed the launch of the Galaxy S26 series to streamline its Exynos 2600 chipset, and therefore, could sell the Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S26 Plus in markets like Europe, South Korea, and India.
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Galaxy S26 Launch Delayed for Exynos
However, even in these markets, the S26 Ultra could still feature the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, a slightly overclocked version of Qualcomm’s current flagship. However, in markets such as the United States, Canada, and China, all S26 models may run on the Snapdragon chip.
That’s the situation we know of. A new report from the Greek publication Techmaniacs sheds more light on this, highlighting the differences between the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy and the Exynos 2600. The publication has identified the chipsets in Geekbench’s database, and we’re primarily interested in the performance scores.
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Exynos 2600 vs. Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5: Geekbench Scores Reveal Tight Competition
As per screenshots shared by the publication, the baseline Galaxy S26 with the Exynos 2600 (2nm) SoC scores 3,197/11,012 points in the single/multi-core Geekbench 6 CPU performance test. These are quite respectable scores, especially when compared with the 3,724/11,237 points scored by the Galaxy S26 Ultra with the 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chipset.
So, at least on the benchmarking platform, the Exynos 2600 and the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 appear to be on par, with the former running slightly behind in single-core performance. That’s primarily because of the prime core’s frequency: the Exynos 2600 sports a 3.80 GHz prime core, whereas the Snapdragon chip seems to feature two 4.74 GHz prime cores.
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But even so, it looks like Samsung has done a decent job of making its in-house flagship chipset as good as Qualcomm’s latest chipset. However, we’ll still take our time to comment on the chipset’s sustained performance, thermal management, and throttling, and real-world multitasking performance.
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