The Samsung Galaxy S25 series did not use Exynos anywhere in the world, relying solely on the Snapdragon 8 Elite. Though many fans would have liked this to be true for the Galaxy S26 as well, Samsung has perfected its excellent 2 nm Exynos 2600 chipset for this generation, and now we know exactly how it fares against the iPhone 17.
Exynos 2600 scores
While Exynos 2600 scores have surfaced in the past, the newest performance scores uploaded to Geekbench show off just how powerful the base model of the Galaxy S26 might be. And if you were concerned about falling behind the iPhone 17, rest assured.
The Exynos 2600 scores, as seen in the latest listings, are as follows at their best:
Single core performance score: 3,336
Multi core performance score: 11,369
For comparison, the A19 chip found on the base iPhone 17 has a single core performance score of 3,626 and a multi core performance score of 9,240. The Exynos 2600 will handily match, and in many cases beat, the performance of the A19 chip.
And if the listing really is of the base model of the Galaxy S26, then we now know for certain that the phone will still feature 12 GB of RAM despite rising memory prices industrywide.
Compared to the Snapdragon 8 Elite on the Galaxy S25 phones, the Exynos 2600 is a big improvement. The Snapdragon chip of last year has a single core performance score of 2,852 and a multi core performance score of 9,431.
When compared to the newest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, the Exynos 2600 delivers a surprising result: it’s just as powerful, if not better. The latest and greatest Snapdragon chip gets the following scores on the Vivo iQOO 15, the phone it performed the best on:
Single core performance score: 3,479
Multi core performance score: 10,383
Clearly, the 2 nm manufacturing process has helped out the Exynos 2600 greatly. However, there’s probably more here than meets the benchmark tool’s eye.
Which will fare better, Snapdragon or Exynos?
As people often argue, Exynos chips have had other problems in the past. The Exynos 2600 might beat the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 in benchmarks, but sustained real-world performance can often lead to entirely different scenarios.
For example, Exynos chips have had performance issues in the past due to poor thermal management and power efficiency. To that end, Samsung has actually changed around the design of the Exynos 2600 this time to better aid in heat dissipation. That might help, but we also have to keep in mind the Galaxy S26 Ultra.
According to most reports, the S26 Ultra will still use the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 across the entire world. Some regions are also expected to get Snapdragon variants of the base Galaxy S26 and the Galaxy S26 Plus. If the Exynos 2600 really is as powerful as it seems, why is Samsung still relying on Snapdragon this year?
Fingers crossed, Samsung
I’m just glad to see that Samsung made a comeback with the Exynos chips. Some of you might remember just how much trouble Samsung Foundry had been in not too long ago, when it was struggling to even perfect 3 nm chip manufacturing. People’s hesitancy towards Exynos is understandable, but I do think that the company is on the right track now.
Whether the Exynos 2600 beats the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 or not is, to my mind, irrelevant. Both processors will make sure that the phones that they are found in are some of the best phones of the year.
No, instead, the key takeaway here is that Samsung might finally be getting ready to become more self-sufficient in the future. It’s clearly been a long-term goal for the company, and I truly believe that its phones can see major improvements in performance if it can strike a hardware and software synergy akin to Apple’s products.
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Abdullah loves smartphones, Virtual Reality, and audio gear. Though he covers a wide range of news his favorite is always when he gets to talk about the newest VR venture or when Apple sets the industry ablaze with another phenomenal release.
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