While the Samsung Galaxy S25 collection boasts the same top-end Snapdragon 8 Elite around the world, that hasn’t always been the case.
With phones like the Galaxy S24 range, Samsung employed a chipset split; US users got the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, while those of us in the UK, EU, and other regions got the Exynos 2400 chipset.
Well, it looks like that might be the case once again for the 2026 Galaxy S26 collection, and reader, I’m concerned.
Samsung S26 Ultra rumoured to feature Exynos 2600
The report comes from Korean news site Yonhap News, which claims that Samsung is “likely” to use the Exynos 2600 specifically in the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra.
The report doesn’t go into detail about whether this will be a worldwide rollout or specific to some regions, but given Samsung’s previous releases, I’d wager it’d be the latter. The States always get the Snapdragon chipset – but for many other regions around the world, it’s a bit of a gamble.
It’s an interesting prospect if true, especially given how impressive Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset sounds. Compared to the already-powerful Snapdragon 8 Elite, Qualcomm claims the new chipset offers a 20% boost to CPU, 23% gains in the GPU department and a 37% jump in the NPU department.
Considering the Snapdragon 8 Elite already offered a massive boost in power compared to the previous 8 Gen 3, there’s some serious power in the new chipset. Well, going by Qualcomm’s numbers anyway; while 8 Elite Gen 5 chips have begun appearing in phones in China, none have been released globally just yet, so I haven’t had the chance to benchmark them myself.
Still, expectations are high for the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, and for a top-end phone to offer anything but that chipset is going to be a gamble.
The problem with Exynos chipsets of old
I think I’m scarred by previous Samsung flagship chipset splits because, despite Samsung’s claims that the Exynos variant can always keep up with the Snapdragon alternative, that’s not the case in real-world testing.
Take 2024’s base-level Samsung Galaxy S24 for example. I managed to get my hands on both Exynos 2400 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 variants of the phone and put them through the same series of tests.
As you might’ve expected, the Snapdragon-equipped S24 beat the Exynos equivalent in a litany of tests across CPU and GPU. If you’re curious about that, you can read my in-depth report here.
Now, apply that logic to the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, Samsung’s top-end smartphone for 2026. If there are similar gaps in performance between the Exynos and Snapdragon variants, that’s not going to look good.
After all, when you’re paying over a grand for a phone, you expect the very best performance possible – and that might not be the case for S26 Ultra users around the world.
Less of a performance gap, but I’m unconvinced
With that all in mind, the report does make some rather bold (and I should say, currently unverified) claims about the performance of the chipset compared to Qualcomm’s latest 8 Elite Gen 5.
Per the report, the Exynos 2600 chipset is said to offer 30% better NPU performance and a 29% boost in GPU power, which, if true, could translate to a more powerful gaming experience and faster on-device AI processing.
But, reader, I’m not so sure. Samsung has made bold claims about Exynos chipset performance in the past, and I’ve got a feeling it’s a case of history repeating itself. I am open to being proven wrong, however; Samsung, the ball is in your court now.
