The Galaxy S26 series is official, featuring a new powerful chipset among other upgrades. Just like last year, Samsung has decided to split the hardware by region, giving some models the powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, while others rely on the in-house-built Exynos 2600.
What are the differences between these chipsets? What model comes with what chipset and in which markets exactly? We're going to answer these questions below and help you better understand the Galaxy S26 series hardware situation.
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The Galaxy S26 Ultra gets a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 everywhere in the world
The fastest Qualcomm chip can be found inside the Galaxy S26 Ultra | Image by Qualcomm
If you're planning to buy the Ultra model, you're going to get it with the Snapdragon chipset, and just like the past couple of generations, it bears the "for Galaxy" branding, meaning it's slightly overclocked and there's slightly more performance compared to the regular version of that silicon.
There's no confusion here—the Galaxy S26 Ultra is getting the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 in all regions of the world. Samsung used the same segregation last year, and with the S26 series, the trend continues. The situation is different for the other two models in the lineup.
Does it matter to you whether the S26 has a Snapdragon or Exynos chip?
The story changes with the S26 and S26 Plus
The international version of the S26 and S26 Plus are getting the Exynos 2600 | Image by Samsung
If you're living in North America, Japan, or China, the entire Galaxy S26 lineup comes equipped with the same Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor. This includes the vanilla Galaxy S26 model, as well as the Galaxy S26 Plus, and of course, the Galaxy S26 Ultra.
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In Europe and the rest of the world, the regular Galaxy S26 and the Galaxy S26 Plus feature the in-house developed Exynos 2600 chipset. It's Samsung's latest and greatest silicon, showing early benchmark scores close to the Snapdragon, and also built on the 2nm manufacturing node, while the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is a 3nm chip.
But more on the differences between these two chips further down.
North America, China, Japan
Europe + rest of the world
Samsung Galaxy S26
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy
Samsung Exynos 2600
Samsung Galaxy S26 Plus
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy
Samsung Exynos 2600
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy
What does "for Galaxy" mean?
Qualcomm overclocks its chips and adds some cool tricks specifically for Galaxy flagships | Image by Qualcomm
This "for Galaxy" moniker signifies custom-made, overclocked Snapdragon chips developed by Qualcomm specifically to deliver superior CPU, GPU, and AI performance for Samsung flagship devices.
Samsung announced its partnership with Qualcomm back in 2023 with the Galaxy S23 series. This partnership gave birth to the "for Galaxy" branding on the silicon inside Samsung's flagship phones.
The Galaxy S26 series is the latest lineup to take advantage of this partnership, and all Snapdragon-equipped models bear the "for Galaxy" stamp.
What are the differences between the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and the Exynos 2600?
These two chipsets are rather different | Image by SammyGuru
The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and the Exynos 2600 are two rather different chipsets, both in core and GPU architecture and in manufacturing process as well.
The Qualcomm chip is built using TSMC's 3nm manufacturing technology and features a custom 3rd-gen Qualcomm Oryon CPU. It consists of two big prime cores clocked at 4.61 GHz and 6 performance cores at 3.63 GHz.
The Exynos 2600, on the other hand, uses a different 1+3+6 core architecture, featuring one big C1-Ultra core at 3.8 GHz, three C1-Pro cores clocked at 3.25 GHz, and six efficiency C1-Pro cores clocked lower at 2.75 GHz.
The GPU processors are also different between these two chipsets. The Snapdragon uses Adreno 840, while the Exynos comes equipped with an Xclipse 960 graphics chip. You can find a detailed comparison between the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and the Exynos 2600 in the table below:
Adreno 840 Snapdragon Game Super Resolution High Performance Memory
Xclipse 960 Exynos Neural Super Sampling
NPU
Hexagon
32K MAC NPU
Video decoder
H.264, H.265, VP9, AV1
H.264, H.265, VP9, AV1
Storage
UFS 4.1
UFS 4.1
Modem
Snapdragon X85
N/A – external
Process
TSMC 3nm N3P
Samsung 2nm GAA
Early benchmarks show that the multi-core performance is very close between these two chips, while the Snapdragon has a slight edge when it comes to single-core performance. We need to run some tests in our lab to be able to pass a final verdict on which one is faster, so stay tuned for benchmark scores soon.
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Mariyan, a tech enthusiast with a background in Nuclear Physics and Journalism, brings a unique perspective to PhoneArena. His childhood curiosity for gadgets evolved into a professional passion for technology, leading him to the role of Editor-in-Chief at PCWorld Bulgaria before joining PhoneArena. Mariyan's interests range from mainstream Android and iPhone debates to fringe technologies like graphene batteries and nanotechnology. Off-duty, he enjoys playing his electric guitar, practicing Japanese, and revisiting his love for video games and Haruki Murakami's works.
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