Last updated: April 9th, 2026 at 16:09 UTC+02:00
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It's never been so close!
Reading time: 2 minutes
Asif Shaik - SamMobile
There has been a long-standing assumption that the Exynos chipsets tend to trail their Snapdragon counterparts in meaningful ways. While that may be true to some extent, it's not fully rooted in reality.
Our colleagues over at SamMobile TV have put together a detailed video with an Exynos 2600 vs Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 showdown, the two chipsets being used in the Galaxy S26 series.
The Snapdragon chipset does pull ahead in raw CPU performance under benchmarks, particularly in single-core workloads, but this only tells part of the story. This gap between the Exynos and Snapdragon largely disappears in real-world usage.
For example, everyday Galaxy AI tasks run at nearly identical speeds on both chips. It's also worth noting that the Exynos 2600 pulls ahead in GPU benchmarks, even outperforming the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 in longer LOG video exports, while also running cooler.
It's clear that the Exynos 2600 isn't just competitive against its Snapdragon counterpart, it meaningfully narrows the gap that have existed between the two for years, making this one of the most balanced Samsung chip matchups yet.
Do check out the full video below as it goes into a lot more detail on benchmarks, thermals, AI performance, and more. As always, don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more informative videos.
Adnan Farooqui is a long-term writer at SamMobile. Based in Pakistan, his interests include technology, finance, Swiss watches and Formula 1. His tendency to write long posts betrays his inclination to being a man of few words.
