He The Galaxy S26 Ultra is the next big thing on the horizon, but its pre-order and pre-sales numbers face real risks. Samsung only has itself to blame.
According to rumors, the flagship at max could arrive with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset or the Exynos 2600, depending on the market in which it will be sold.
In recent years, Galaxy S Ultra models have traditionally arrived with Snapdragon silicon on board. This made people very happy as the Exynos chipsets fought against their Snapdragon counterparts in terms of raw power, efficiency, and cooling.
Now, Samsung may have a really cool and powerful Exynos 2600 on its hands, but the problem is that people aren’t buying the idea so far.
What the poll numbers say
We asked him how he feels about Galaxy S26 Ultra adopting an Exynos 2600, and the results of our PhoneArena survey should cause mild panic at Samsung HQ:
Image by PhoneArena
Almost half of those surveyed said they will wait for Galaxy S26 Ultra in-depth reviews to eliminate. A quarter of you say the Snapdragon is a must-have, while 28% are already hooked on the idea of the Exynos 2600.
That’s not the end of the world, as many people could get the Ultra later. But the number of pre-orders could be very different from previous Galaxy S Ultra models. Initial sales are very important for every company.
What the reference numbers say
A rendering of the upcoming Galaxy S26 Ultra.
Samsung is preparing to return Exynos to the Ultra lineup for the first time since the Galaxy S22 Ultra in 2022. Previous Exynos chips were slower, prone to overheating, and hampered by Samsung Foundry production issues, but the new Exynos 2600 is Rumor has it that that will change.
Built on a 2nm process, Exynos 2600 could offer significant performance improvements over Apple’s A19 Pro and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, excelling in AI, multi-core and graphics tasks.
He The latest benchmarks for the Exynos 2600 show even better performance than before, suggesting Samsung has made last-minute improvements ahead of launch.
The Exynos 2600 now records a single-core score of 3,455 and multi-core of 11,621, surpassing the Snapdragon 8 Elite’s widely cited previous scores of 2,865 and 9,487, although the latest Geekbench run for the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 shows 3,834 single-core and 12,396 multi-core.
In reality, the Exynos 2600 could be as fast and powerful as the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5: but it all depends on how well it handles high temperatures and battery efficiency.
People don’t want to spend money blindly.
Even though there are those who walk around and simply buy the latest and greatest phone out there, most people are being very careful about spending a four-figure sum on a phone. After all, we have to be sure that what we are buying is worth it, and then some, since we are talking about flagships. Nobody wants a flagship that overheats or drains the battery in no time, even if the overall experience is fast and responsive.
That’s why I wish Samsung’s marketing team good luck trying to convince the public how powerful the Exynos 2600 is: they’ll need it.
