Galaxy S26 chipsets finally explained: why Snapdragon powers the Ultra and Exynos fights back

For months, the biggest mystery around Samsung’s next flagship phones has not been cameras, design, or battery life. It has been a simple but crucial question: which processor will you actually get in your Galaxy S26? After a wave of leaks and Korean reports, the picture is finally clear, and it is more nuanced than a simple Snapdragon versus Exynos headline.

The short version is this: Samsung is betting heavily on Qualcomm again, but its in house Exynos line is far from dead. The Galaxy S26 Ultra will rely entirely on Qualcomm silicon across the globe, while the regular Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus will be split between Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and Samsung’s own Exynos 2600, depending on where you live. Under the surface, that decision reveals a lot about Samsung’s priorities, its thermal struggles in the past, and the long game it is playing in chip manufacturing.

Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 takes the lead, Exynos 2600 follows

According to reports from South Korea, Samsung has now locked in its chipset strategy for the Galaxy S26 family. Roughly seven out of ten S26 units produced are expected to ship with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, while the remaining three will use Samsung’s new Exynos 2600. That 70 to 30 split brings Samsung back to the mixed chip approach seen in earlier Galaxy S generations, but with a clear bias toward Qualcomm.

The breakdown by model is even more telling. The Galaxy S26 Ultra, Samsung’s top tier slab phone, will use the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 in every market. If you buy the Ultra in North America, Europe, Korea, or anywhere else, you can safely assume there is a Snapdragon inside. The standard Galaxy S26 and the S26 Plus are different: North American variants will use Snapdragon, while Europe, Korea and several other regions will receive Exynos 2600 powered versions.

In other words, Qualcomm still owns the majority share of the lineup, especially in key markets, but Exynos is back on the field for a sizeable part of the global audience.

Why Samsung is protecting the Galaxy S26 Ultra at all costs

The Galaxy S26 Ultra is not just another model in the catalog. Internally, it is the hero product that does the heavy lifting for the entire S series. Industry estimates suggest that the Ultra line alone is responsible for around half of all Galaxy S sales. That means any performance or reliability problem on the Ultra would ripple through Samsung’s brand image far more than issues on the base or Plus models.

That context helps explain why Samsung is so conservative with the Ultra. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 has built a reputation for strong performance and stability, and many Android enthusiasts openly prefer Snapdragon powered Galaxy phones. Samsung is clearly aware of this perception. By standardising on Qualcomm silicon for the Ultra across all regions, the company is removing a huge source of anxiety for power users who still remember problematic Exynos generations with higher temperatures and weaker graphics.

The decision is also pragmatic. Qualcomm’s chief executive has repeatedly said the company assumes about a 75 percent share for future Galaxy flagships when building its financial forecasts. The final 70 percent figure reported for the S26 lineup sits close to that expectation and indicates a compromise that keeps both Samsung’s chip division and Qualcomm reasonably happy.

Exynos 2600: Samsung’s first 2 nm mobile chip steps into the spotlight

None of this means the Exynos 2600 is a weak or experimental product. In fact, on paper it is one of the most ambitious mobile chips Samsung has ever designed. It is set to be the company’s first smartphone processor built on a 2 nanometer process, a major shrink that should bring big efficiency gains and more room for advanced CPU, GPU, and AI cores.

Samsung skipped its previously planned Exynos 2500 for the Galaxy S25 generation after internal reports of heating and efficiency issues. Instead, the S25 range shipped exclusively with a Snapdragon 8 Elite chip. With the Exynos 2600, Samsung appears determined not to repeat that mistake. A key part of the solution is a new packaging technology called Heat Pass Block, or HPB. This approach adds a dedicated heat spreading block above the chip so that thermal energy travels more quickly into the phone’s cooling hardware, keeping peak performance available for longer bursts without throttling.

At the same time, the Exynos 2600 is believed to be facing yield challenges. Because it is the first 2 nm design from Samsung’s foundry, manufacturing enough chips at consistently high quality is hard. Limited yields mean limited supply, which is another strong reason why Samsung cannot realistically put the Exynos 2600 into every Galaxy S26 and S26 Ultra, even if it wanted to.

Leaked benchmarks: Exynos looks fast, but numbers do not tell the whole story

Leaked benchmark scores paint a very flattering picture of the Exynos 2600. Early figures hint that it could edge past Snapdragon 8 Elite chips and even overtake Apple’s A19 Pro inside the iPhone 17 Pro Max in certain synthetic tests. Some leaks go further and suggest that in raw performance, the 2600 comes surprisingly close to Apple’s M5 chip found in the latest iPad Pro tablets.

Impressive as that sounds, there are two important caveats. First, synthetic benchmarks are easy to manipulate or cherry pick, and they measure peak performance under short bursts rather than the experience you get over a long gaming session, a day of photography, or hours of on device AI tasks. Second, if the Exynos 2600 was clearly superior to Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 in real internal testing, it would be difficult to justify keeping it out of the Ultra entirely. The fact that the Ultra stays all Snapdragon strongly suggests that, at best, the two chips are trading blows, or that factors like yields and user perception matter more than a few extra benchmark points.

What this means for buyers in different regions

So what does all of this mean if you are thinking about buying a Galaxy S26 in 2026? If you are in North America and you want the peace of mind of Qualcomm silicon, you are in luck: every Galaxy S26, S26 Plus, and S26 Ultra sold there is expected to run Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. If you live in Europe, Korea or other Exynos markets and you want a Snapdragon powered phone, the Ultra is your guaranteed route.

If you end up with an Exynos 2600 S26 or S26 Plus, you should still expect a flagship class experience. Thanks to the new heat management and the 2 nm process, Samsung appears confident enough to bring Exynos back into the conversation after sitting out the previous generation. Everyday tasks, social media, photography and even demanding games are likely to feel extremely smooth on both chipsets. The bigger differences may show up in edge cases like sustained gaming or certain AI workloads, and those details will only become clear after independent reviews.

Why Samsung still insists on making its own chips

Using in house components is rarely just about pride. By developing and shipping its own Exynos processors, Samsung can reduce its reliance on external suppliers, better integrate hardware and software, and potentially improve margins on each device. Success with Exynos 2600 in the Galaxy S26 series is also a powerful reference for Samsung’s foundry business, which wants to attract more external clients for advanced 2 nm and beyond designs.

At the same time, Samsung has learned the hard way that pushing an immature chip too widely can damage its smartphone brand. The cautious approach with the S26 line, where only about a third of units use Exynos and the most visible model stays on Snapdragon, shows a more balanced strategy: rebuild trust in Exynos slowly while keeping the flagship experience as safe as possible.

The bottom line: no bad choice, just different priorities

In the end, the Galaxy S26 series does not present a simple good chip versus bad chip story. Instead, it is a snapshot of a transition. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 remains the safe, globally trusted option, especially for the Ultra that carries the halo effect of the entire line. Samsung’s Exynos 2600 represents the company’s push into 2 nm manufacturing, upgraded cooling and more competitive in house silicon, but it is being rolled out carefully, with realistic limits on where and how it appears.

The reassuring part for buyers is that Samsung has every incentive to make sure both versions deliver a flagship level experience. Whether there is a Snapdragon or an Exynos under the glass, the Galaxy S26 family is being positioned as faster, cooler and smarter than the generation before it. The real story will unfold once retail units land in the wild, but one thing is clear already: the chipset question around the Galaxy S26 has finally been answered, and the answer is more thoughtful than many expected.