Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S26 looks set to deliver a serious performance boost, thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2. The Galaxy S26 Edge recently popped up on Geekbench, ditching the much-rumored Exynos 2600 in favor of Qualcomm’s latest powerhouse – and the benchmark results are eye-opening.
The S26 Edge scored 3,393 in single-core tests and an impressive 11,515 in multi-core performance. 
For comparison, last year’s Snapdragon 8 Elite inside the Galaxy S25 Ultra managed 2,869 and 9,495 respectively, meaning we’re looking at a notable jump in raw speed. Even Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro with the A18 Pro, which hit 3,449 single-core and 8,573 multi-core, lags far behind in multi-core throughput.
The story behind the chipset switch is less glamorous for Samsung. The Exynos 2600, a planned 2nm in-house chip, has been plagued by manufacturing yield issues, much like the 3nm Exynos 2500 before it. These problems pushed Samsung to rely on Snapdragon for the S26 series – at least in some markets. There’s still a slim chance the company might ship region-specific Exynos variants, but current production troubles suggest Snapdragon will be the safer bet for global models.
For users, this means the Galaxy S26 series could combine the performance edge of Snapdragon with improved thermals and battery efficiency, setting it up as a serious rival to Apple in 2025. Whether or not Samsung’s chip division catches up in time remains to be seen – but for now, the numbers speak for themselves.