A YouTube channel ran a battery take a look at on two variations of the Galaxy S26. Identical telephone, similar duties, similar circumstances, however the one distinction was the chip inside. The distinction? It turned out to be price practically three hours of display time.
Android Addicts performed a battery take a look at on two Galaxy S26 models aspect by aspect: one powered by the Exynos 2600 (obtainable in some Asian markets) and the opposite by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 (obtainable in america).
How dangerous is it?
The channel carried out similar duties on the telephones, together with calls, 4K video recording, navigation, streaming, gaming benchmarks, and social media use. Whereas it’s not essential to do all these duties on a smartphone every day, checks like these often put a heavy load on the system, draining the battery.
To get the best-possible outcomes, each telephones had Wi-Fi off and 5G lively all through. The consequence? The Snapdragon-equipped S26 lasted 9 hours and 26 minutes, whereas the Exynos variant lasted 6 hours and 48 minutes — a distinction of practically 28% or two-and-a-half hours of real-world utilization.
The Exynos-powered Galaxy S26 didn’t even make it to the Instagram and Amazon Prime Video phase of the battery take a look at, leaving the Snapdragon unit to soldier on.
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Traits
Why is Samsung’s personal chip dropping to Qualcomm’s?
The brief reply: warmth and starvation. The Exynos 2600 chip attracts round 30W below peak load, which is roughly 40% larger than the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5’s 21W ceiling, for practically the identical multi-core output.
These energy spikes generate warmth, which is the enemy of the chipset’s effectivity, and the ensuing drop in effectivity will increase battery consumption. Throughout video encoding, notably on the Exynos-powered Galaxy S26, it started overheating, additional lowering its runtime.
Now, to be truthful, the Exynos 2600 nonetheless carries the bragging rights because the world’s first 2nm GAA chip. Nevertheless, proper now, it seems to be just like the badge is doing higher for advertising and marketing than precise, real-world efficiency.
Tom Bedford / Digital Traits
The distinction doesn’t have an effect on Galaxy S26 consumers in america. Nevertheless, for individuals in different markets (like me), the battery-drain take a look at stings, highlighting the hole that also exists between Samsung and Qualcomm’s newest smartphone processors.
