Exynos 2600 Matches Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 in Early Geekbench Scores

Samsung’s next flagship chip, the Exynos 2600, is shaping up to be its most competitive in years. According to new Geekbench results, the in-house processor has closed the performance gap with Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon 8 Elite 2, setting the stage for a much tighter battle in next year’s Galaxy S26 series. The next Exynos may power the 2026 flagships in at least some markets.

Exynos 2600 appears on Geekbench with impressive numbers

Tipster @Jukanlosreve recently shared Geekbench scores for the Exynos 2600 running on a prototype device. The results show a single-core CPU score of 3,309 and a multi-core score of 11,256. Those scores are in the same ballpark as the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 (3,393 and 11,515). If both chipsets live up to expectations, we are in for a much closer Exynos vs. Snapdragon battle next year.

For years, Samsung’s in-house silicon has underperformed against competing Qualcomm solutions. The Korean firm’s relentless efforts may finally pay off with its first-ever 2nm processor, the Exynos 2600. Considering these scores came from a prototype device, the chip could deliver even better performance once finalized for commercial Galaxy S26 models. The Snapdragon’s scores are from the US version of the S26 Edge.

Like its predecessors, the Exynos 2600 carries a 10-core CPU setup, featuring one prime core at 3.8GHz, three performance cores at 3.26GHz, and six efficiency cores at 2.76GHz. The tested prototype paired the chip with 12GB RAM and ran Android 16. Samsung may equip the Galaxy S26 Pro and S26 Edge with this processor in some regions, if not globally. The Ultra could still run the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 worldwide.

To recall, the new Snapdragon has a much faster CPU, with its two prime cores operating at a whopping 4.74GHz. Even its other six cores run close to the peak speed of the Exynos 2600, clocking 3.63Ghz. Samsung must have optimized the new Exynos much better to get the best out of its hardware. It remains to be seen whether it can challenge the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 in real-world performance.