Samsung has been clawing its way back into the chip conversation for a few years now, but this latest benchmark result is genuinely wild. According to a new report from Wccftech, the Exynos 2600 inside the Samsung Galaxy S26 is outperforming a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 phone that’s been cooled with liquid nitrogen. Yes, you read that right. Passive cooling versus actual cryogenic cooling, and Samsung’s chip is still coming out ahead in sustained workloads.
The secret sauce here is Samsung’s Heat Pass Block, or HPB. It’s basically a copper heatsink that sits directly on top of the die, dissipating heat from the chip faster than traditional cooling solutions can. While most flagships rely on vapor chambers and thermal paste to keep things in check, Samsung engineered a dedicated thermal layer directly into the silicon stack.
Why This Matters for the Galaxy S26
Here’s where things get interesting. Geekbench 6 numbers have already shown the Exynos 2600 edging out the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 in multi-core with a score of 10,444 against 10,207. The Snapdragon still wins single-core at 3,588 versus 3,105, but Samsung’s 10-core layout gives it the multi-threaded edge. And honestly? The HPB is what keeps those scores from collapsing under sustained load.
That’s the real story. Short benchmark bursts don’t tell you how a smartphone actually behaves during a long gaming session or an extended 8K video export. The HPB is built specifically to keep the chip’s clocks stable when things get hot, and that’s where the liquid nitrogen comparison falls apart. Liquid nitrogen is great for achieving peak scores in a controlled lab setting, but it doesn’t translate to real-world phone use.
The catch, of course, is that the Galaxy S26 Ultra still ships with Snapdragon globally. Samsung is only putting the Exynos 2600 in the base S26 and S26+ in markets like Europe, South Korea, and India. So if you’re in the US, you’re not getting the HPB advantage at all. Let’s be real, that’s a frustrating split for anyone who wanted to see what Samsung’s chip team can actually do.
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