Exynos 2600 Benchmarks Hint at Unexpected CPU Slowdown

Samsung’s new Exynos 2600 was supposed to mark a big return for the company’s own chips. But new benchmark results suggest the processor isn’t performing as well as many expected.

Recent Geekbench listings show a drop in CPU power, raising questions about what’s really going on as the chip gets closer to launch.

The Exynos 2600 has been in the works for a while, and it’s expected to power the upcoming Galaxy S26 series. Early tests looked great, with results showing it could match or even outperform big names like Qualcomm and Apple.

Those early numbers had fans thinking Samsung was finally ready to close the performance gap for good.

In its most recent test, the Exynos 2600 scored 3,047 in single-core and 10,025 in multi-core performance. That’s a clear step down from the August benchmarks, where the same chip recorded 3,309 and 11,256, respectively.

By comparison, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite, the current chip used in phones like the Galaxy S25 Ultra, still leads slightly with a single-core score of 3,186. Its multi-core performance comes in at 10,042, keeping it just ahead of Samsung’s latest chip. It’s a tight race, but the latest results put the Exynos just behind.

The cause of this dip appears to be a change in clock speeds. The newest Geekbench listing shows the chip running at slower frequencies than before. The main performance core, once clocked at 3.80 GHz, now tops out at 3.55 GHz. The supporting cores have also been reduced across the board.

Samsung might be experimenting with new power settings to make the chip more efficient, or it could be dealing with heat issues that forced it to lower the speed. Managing heat and power has always been tricky for top-tier phone chips, so Samsung could just be tweaking the Exynos 2600 to find the right balance.

While the numbers might look worrying, it’s too early to conclude. The chip is still under testing, and the final version could easily regain lost ground before launch. Samsung has plenty of time to optimise performance before unveiling the Galaxy S26 next year.

For now, the Exynos 2600 remains a work in progress. It shows promise but also highlights the challenges of keeping power, efficiency, and heat perfectly in sync.