Snapdragon Strikes Again: Ultra Outpaces Exynos In Early Tests

With Samsung’s Galaxy S26 series set to debut later this month, early benchmark leaks have sparked discussion about performance differences between the standard Galaxy S26 and the premium Galaxy S26 Ultra. Reports indicate that the Ultra, powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, delivers a notable edge in single-core tasks compared to the Exynos 2600 chip in the regular S26.  

Geekbench 6.6.0 scores reportedly show the Galaxy S26 achieving 3,197 in single-core and 11,012 in multi-core, while the Ultra posts 3,724 and 11,237 respectively. This translates to roughly a 15% single-core advantage for the Ultra, though multi-core performance remains nearly identical.  

Industry experts note that while these results highlight Qualcomm’s continued strength in raw performance, Samsung’s Exynos chip appears competitive in multi-core workloads. The final user experience will depend on optimization, thermal management, and software integration once devices hit the market.  

Key Highlights  

• Galaxy S26 Ultra powered by Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5  
• Standard Galaxy S26 runs on Samsung Exynos 2600  
• Ultra shows ~15% single-core performance advantage  
• Multi-core scores nearly identical between both models  
• Benchmarks are pre-release and subject to change  

Sources: Android Authority, FindArticles, NotebookCheck