Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra benchmark leak is bad news for iPhone 17 Pro Max owners
New Galaxy S26 Ultra benchmarks confirm serious power
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The power of the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra just got teased in newly leaked benchmark results, which may make iPhone owners a little jealous.
Tipster Tarun Vats posted a screenshot of the alleged S26 Ultra Geekbench 6 scores on X. The results specifically belong to a Samsung device with model number SM-S948B, but this model number has been associated with the S26 Ultra before. The letter "B" at the end of this string indicates this is the global version of the phone, rather than one for a specific market like Korea.
The headline numbers are a 3,601 single-core score and a 10,686 multi-core score. That's a higher single-core score than previous leaks we've seen, but a lower multi-core score. This could be due to a number of reasons, including the test itself or performance tuning by Samsung.
| Row 0 - Cell 0 | Galaxy S26 Ultra (alleged) | iPhone 17 Pro Max | Galaxy S25 Ultra |
Geekbench 6 single-core score | 3,601 | 3,871 | 3,031 |
Geekbench 6 multi-core score | 10,686 | 9,968 | 9,829 |
Most importantly for Android fans, the multi-core score is still ahead of the iPhone 17 Pro Max's, which managed results of 3,871 / 9,968 in our own testing with Geekbench 6. Benchmarks don't tell the full story about real-world performance, but it seems like anyone buying the latest Samsung can rest assured they'll have the upper hand over their Apple-wielding friends, at least until the iPhone 18 series launches.
Who's running things?
After months of rumors going back and forth on which chip Samsung would use in its new flagship phones, it seems like the uncertainty is over, as this benchmark is for a device using the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, based on the core clusters and clock speeds.
Samsung had been tipped to use its own Exynos 2600 chip in at least some Galaxy S26 variants, but this could depend on where you buy the phone and which model. One working theory is that the Galaxy S26 Ultra could be powered by Snapdragon worldwide, but the Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus could have Exynos in some markets.
The benchmark results also show that the phone is running on 12GB RAM, which is what we expect to see for the standard S26 Ultra. The 1TB edition is tipped to get 16GB RAM, as with previous generations.
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Samsung is tipped to launch the Galaxy S26 series in just a few weeks on February 25th. Stay tuned for our full Galaxy S26 Ultra review and in-depth benchmarks.
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Richard is based in London, covering news, reviews and how-tos for phones, tablets, gaming, and whatever else people need advice on. Following on from his MA in Magazine Journalism at the University of Sheffield, he's also written for WIRED U.K., The Register and Creative Bloq. When not at work, he's likely thinking about how to brew the perfect cup of specialty coffee.
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