A YouTube channel ran a battery test on two versions of the Galaxy S26. Same phone, same tasks, same conditions, but the only difference was the chip inside. The difference? It turned out to be worth nearly three hours of screen time.
Android Addicts conducted a battery test on two Galaxy S26 units side by side: one powered by the Exynos 2600 (available in some Asian markets) and the other by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 (available in the United States).
How bad is it?
The channel performed identical tasks on the phones, including calls, 4K video recording, navigation, streaming, gaming benchmarks, and social media use. While it’s not necessary to do all these tasks on a smartphone daily, tests like these usually put a heavy load on the device, draining the battery.
To get the best-possible results, both phones had Wi-Fi off and 5G active throughout. The result? The Snapdragon-equipped S26 lasted 9 hours and 26 minutes, while the Exynos variant lasted 6 hours and 48 minutes — a difference of nearly 28% or two-and-a-half hours of real-world usage.
The Exynos-powered Galaxy S26 didn’t even make it to the Instagram and Amazon Prime Video segment of the battery test, leaving the Snapdragon unit to soldier on.
Why is Samsung’s own chip losing to Qualcomm’s?
The short answer: heat and hunger. The Exynos 2600 chip draws around 30W under peak load, which is roughly 40% higher than the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5’s 21W ceiling, for nearly the same multi-core output.
Those power spikes generate heat, which is the enemy of the chipset’s efficiency, and the resulting drop in efficiency increases battery consumption. During video encoding, particularly on the Exynos-powered Galaxy S26, it began overheating, further reducing its runtime.
Now, to be fair, the Exynos 2600 still carries the bragging rights as the world’s first 2nm GAA chip. However, right now, it looks like the badge is doing better for marketing than actual, real-world performance.
The difference doesn’t affect Galaxy S26 buyers in the United States. However, for people in other markets (like me), the battery-drain test stings, highlighting the gap that still exists between Samsung and Qualcomm’s latest smartphone processors.