Samsung’s Galaxy S26 series is almost here, and if you’ve been following the chip story, you already know the split: Exynos 2600 in the standard S26, Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 reserved for the Ultra.
Now we have some numbers to go with that narrative. Greek outlet TechManiacs published what appear to be Geekbench 6.6.0 results for both phones. The standard Galaxy S26 with Exynos 2600 scored 3,197 in single-core and 11,012 in multi-core. The Ultra, running Snapdragon, hit 3,724 and 11,237 respectively.
The headline takeaway is a roughly 15% single-core lead for the Snapdragon chip. Multi-core, though, is almost a wash.
Worth flagging: the Snapdragon here appears to be running slightly overclocked, as Samsung’s Galaxy-specific version of Qualcomm chips typically does. That likely accounts for at least part of the single-core advantage you’re seeing on paper.
And pre-release benchmarks always come with caveats. Early firmware, non-final thermal management, and controlled testing conditions can shift scores meaningfully in either direction before a phone actually ships.
There’s also precedent worth considering. Last year’s Galaxy S25 lineup used the same Snapdragon processor across all models, and the standard S25 still trailed the Ultra by 9 to 12% in single-core tests. The cause there was almost certainly cooling capacity, not the chip itself. Multi-core performance was nearly identical.
The point is that a 15% benchmark gap rarely survives contact with real-world usage. Day-to-day tasks, app performance, and sustained workloads are shaped by far more than a Geekbench score.
