Galaxy S25 Plus in blue. | Image by PhoneArena
If you were still holding some hope that Samsung would go the full Snapdragon route this year, a new leaked benchmark listing might feel like the final nail in the coffin. The listing shows what is presumed to be a Galaxy S26 Plus equipped with Samsung’s own Exynos 2600 chipset.
Exynos 2600 spotted in SM-S947B
The Geekbench entry shows the Galaxy S26 Plus powered by a chip shown as “s5e9965,” which is widely associated with the Exynos 2600. That aligns with earlier reports of Samsung splitting chipsets by region once again.A Korean Galaxy S26 Plus variant appeared on Geekbench last month, and it was also running on Exynos. It seems, however, that when it comes to the US, Samsung will be sticking to Qualcomm’s chipsets. A separate US-bound Galaxy S26 surfaced with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.In other words, it is safe to assume that all Galaxy S26 series will come with Snapdragon chipsets stateside. As for other markets, like China and Europe, the S26 Plus—and presumably the base Galaxy S26—will come with Exynos.
Performance scores and key specs
The SM-S947B chip from the aforementioned Geekbench listing has scored 2,304 in single-core and 9,015 in multi-core tests on Geekbench 6. Of course, it’s worth noting that synthetic benchmarks don’t tell the whole story, they only give us a rough idea of what the CPU will be capable of before launch.
The listing also confirmes a few other details. It shows us that the unit being tested came with 12 GB of RAM, Android 16, and One UI 8.5. The RAM configuration seems to mirror that of the Galaxy S25 Plus, which means Samsung will be sticking with the same baseline memory for its Plus model.
A touchy subject
Samsung has used a dual-chip strategy before, and it tends to spark debate every year. Performance gaps between Exynos and Snapdragon variants have narrowed in recent generations, but enthusiasts still keep a close eye on benchmark results.With the Galaxy S26 series officially set to launch on February 25 in San Francisco, we won’t have to wait long to see how the Exynos 2600 stacks up outside of benchmark tests.
The Galaxy S26, Galaxy S26 Plus and Galaxy S26 Ultra are all expected to debut at the event, alongside the Galaxy Buds 4. If this listing is accurate, the chipset split is back on track for 2026.
