It isn’t a surprise that the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, due out next January, will be powered in all markets by Qualcomm’s next flagship application processor (AP), the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2. To be more precise, the phone will get the tweaked variant of this silicon with the extra “for Galaxy” moniker. According to a machine translated Weibo post from Digital Chat Station, the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 could be unveiled in September instead of October which is when Qualcomm introduced its previous two flagship APs.
Why would Qualcomm move the unveiling to September from October? One possible reason for this move is that it would prevent MediaTek from hogging the media attention with the introduction of the Dimensity 9500 SoC which is also expected to take place in September (only four months away by the way). Not only is there a rather fierce rivalry brewing between the two fabless chip designers but both are expected to have their 2025 flagship APs manufactured by TSMC using its third-generation 3nm process node (N3P).
Another possibility is that Samsung wants to start taking pre-orders for its flagship line a little earlier. Interestingly, should Samsung move the Galaxy S26 series unveiling a month earlier, it could take place in December 2025. That would mean that pre-orders for both the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S26 lines took place in the same year. It also would help Samsung compete against the iPhone 17 series by reducing the time gap between the release of both flagship lines.
Digital Chat Station digs a little deeper with his Weibo post by adding that besides a September introduction for both chips, flagship Android phones powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 will start to hit the marketplace in October. The Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 is expected to feature upgraded “Pegasus” cores from Qualcomm with a maximum clock speed of 5GHz. It also is expected to support LPDDR6 RAM and a new Adreno 840 GPU.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 will keep the 2 + 6 core configuration used on the Snapdragon 8 Elite. This is made up of two Prime Cores running as fast as 4.32GHz (although the “for Galaxy” version would probably overclock this speed) and six Performance Cores clocked as fast as 3.53GHz. Compared to the Snapdragon 8 Elite, the sequel will supposedly deliver a 25% increase in performance and the Adreno 840 GPU will reportedly offer a 30% increase in performance. Those figures come from a different Weibo post written approximately two weeks ago by the same source.
Most likely all Galaxy S26 series handsets in the U.S., China, and Canada will be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2. Elsewhere, you can expect the Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S26+ to be powered by Samsung’s own Exynos 2600 chipset with the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 AP running the Galaxy S26 Ultra in all markets.
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