With the Galaxy S26 series phones now officially unveiled, consumers will finally start to see phones that are powered by both Samsung’s Exynos 2600 chipset and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset. As competitors in the flagship space when it comes to chipsets used in mobile devices, it was only fitting that a comparison be done between the two. We’ve already seen some phones with Qualcomm’s chipset inside this year, while Samsung’s Exynos 2600 won’t be hitting devices till next month, specifically with the Galaxy S26 Ultra and the two less powerful variants.
Samsung, however, announced the Exynos 2600 chipset at the end of last year, so we’ve just been waiting for devices to launch that carry the chipset inside. Qualcomm, on the other hand, officially announced its Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 at the end of September 2025. So, just a few months before Samsung was ready to unveil its latest Exynos chip. Both chipsets will be used by manufacturers in devices this year, but Qualcomm’s chip will almost certainly be available in many more of them, since the Exynos chips are made by Samsung and tend to only be used in Samsung’s devices. Outside of the US, no less, as US Samsung flagships will end up with Qualcomm’s top Snapdragon offering. This is also a good comparison to see how Samsung’s chip stacks up against Qualcomm’s, and if it’ll do a better job than the MediaTek Dimensity 9500 that the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 was compared to last year.
spec comparison
| Chipset | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 | Samsung Exynos 2600 |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | 64-bit | 64-bit |
| Process Node | 3nm (N3P) | 2nm GAA |
| CPU | – Octa-core – Custom-built Qualcomm Oryon cores – 2 Prime cores up to 4.6GHz – 6 Performance cores up to 3.62GHz |
– Deca-core – 1x C1-Ultra 3.8 GHz – 3x C1-Prox3 3.25 GHz – 6x C1-Prox6 2.75 GHz |
| GPU | – Last-gen Adreno GPU – 23% increase in overall performance – 20% reduction in power consumption |
– Samsung Xclipse 960 – Twice as high performance compared to Exynos 2500 |
| Memory | LPDDR5X up to 5,300MHz (up to 24GB) | LPDDR5X (up to 24GB) |
| Storage | UFS 4.1 | UFS 4.1 |
| Wi-Fi | – Wi-Fi 7 (a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be) – Peak speed 5.8Gbps |
– Wi-Fi 7 (a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be) |
| 5G Modem | – Qualcomm X85 5G Modem-RF – Peak speed 12.5Gbps |
– Exynos 5410 – Peak speed 14.79Gbps |
| NPU | – Qualcomm Hexagon – 16% better performance per watt |
– AI engine with 32K MAC NPU |
| ISP | – Qualcomm Spectra – Triple 20-bit AI-ISPs |
N/A |
| Bluetooth | – Bluetooth 6.0 – LE Audio, – Bluetooth Channel Sounding |
– Bluetooth 6.0 |
| Display | 4K+ at 120Hz / QHD+ at 240GHz | 4K/WQUXGA at 120 Hz |
| Location | – Concurrent GPS, Glonass, BeiDou, Galileo, QZSS, NavIC – Triple frequency GNSS (L1/L2C/L5) – AI-based GNSS Location Gen 3 – Sensor-Assisted Positioning 6.0 – Urban pedestrian navigation with sidewalk accuracy – Global freeway lane-level vehicle navigation |
– Concurrent GPS, Glonass, BeiDou, Galileo, QZSS, NavIC |
| Camera | – Up to 48 MP triple camera at 30FPS with Zero Shutter Lag – Up to 108 MP single camera at 30FPS with Zero Shutter Lag – Up to 320-megapixel photo capture – Google Ultra HDR photo capture – Up to 10-bit color depth photo and video capture – Video capture HDR formats: HDR10+, HDR10, HLG, – 8K HDR video playback at 60FPS – 4K video capture at 120FPS – Slow-mo video capture at 1080p at 480FPS |
– Supports up to 320MP sensors – Up to 8K video capture at 30fps – Single camera 108MP at 30 fps – Dual camera 64MP+32MP |
| USB | Type-C Version 3.1 Gen 2 | N/A |
| Charging | Qualcomm® Quick Charge 5 Technology |
N/A |
| Audio | – Snapdragon Sound Technology Suite – Qualcomm® aptX Adaptive and aptX Lossless audio |
N/A |
| AI | Qualcomm AI Engine | AI engine with 32K MAC NPU |
| Power Savings | Qualcomm® 5G PowerSave | N/A |
The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 beats the Exynos 2600 in benchmark tests
According to benchmark scores posted by Tech & Leaks Zone on Telegram, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 wins out on benchmarks when it comes down to raw numbers on paper. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll be miles ahead when it comes to real-world use. By the numbers, at least, Samsung’s chipset falls a little bit short. However, it still manages to come out with some pretty good scores.
In the Geekbench Single-core score, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 had a score of 3670, while the Exynos 2600 had a score of 3105. For the multi-core score, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 ended up with 10981, and the Exynos 2600 ended up with 10444. Finally, with the OpenCL GPU score, the Exynos 2600 actually wins, with a score of 24240 compared to 24152 for the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.
The Snapdragon chipset scores higher in two of the three tests, but the differences are pretty small, and both chipsets are bound to pump out some serious performance.
What OEMs will use them?
When it comes to Samsung, the Exynos 2600 is likely only going to be used inside of Samsung’s top flagship phones, and only in the EU and other global regions. In the US, it’s almost a guarantee that all 2026 high-end flagships from Samsung will use the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, because this is how it always is with Samsung’s phones. So far, the Galaxy S26, Galaxy S26 Plus, and Galaxy S26 Ultra are all confirmed to use Qualcomm’s chip for the US model.
As for Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 will be in several top-end flagship phones this year. Samsung US variants of the Galaxy S26 series will all carry this chip, as mentioned. Qualcomm has also had several confirmed partners for the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, including REDMAGIC, OnePlus, and Realme. These are just a few, as more will no doubt be announced throughout the year.
The post Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 vs Samsung Exynos 2600 Comparison appeared first on Android Headlines.
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