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Galaxy S27 Ultra may skip the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 due to thermal issues

Samsung Galaxy S27 Ultra is likely to be powered by a chipset you might not have thought of.

By Aman Kumar

Updated: Oct 17, 2026, 5:16 PM

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A man holding the Galaxy S26 Ultra and S Pen. | Image by PhoneArena

Update: Interestingly, Qualcomm does not believe that there is any sort of heating issue in their latest chipset and has called the Seoul Economic Daily report inaccurate. A Qualcomm spokesperson reached out to PhoneArena with the following statement:

Recent reporting about thermal issues related to Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 is inaccurate. We are proud of the innovation and strong momentum behind our next-generation flagship platform and continue to work closely with global OEMs to deliver premium user experiences.

The original story follows below:

Plenty of exciting information has surfaced about the Galaxy S27 Ultra to date. Its renders, cost, battery capacity, and more have been shared by some really reputable sources. Now the latest leak sheds light on its processor, and, most importantly, it hints that Samsung may break its five-year-long practice regarding the use of a chipset in the Ultra model of the Galaxy S family.

The Samsung Galaxy S27 Ultra could run on the Exynos chipset

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra was the last Ultra model of the S lineup in which Samsung used the Exynos processor in certain markets, like Europe. All the Ultra phones released since then, whether it be the Galaxy S23 Ultra or the latest Galaxy S26 Ultra, feature the Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset in all markets. Heating issues and poor performance compared to the Snapdragon processor were among the main reasons why Samsung decided to switch from its own custom chipsets to Snapdragon.

That said, there is a possibility that Sammy might consider its own Exynos processor in the upcoming Galaxy S27 Ultra. Most likely, it will be the latest Exynos 2700, which was recently reported to outperform the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 SoC in several areas, which include CPU, GPU, AI computation, and power efficiency.

Poll

Exynos or Snapdragon: which chipset would you prefer in the S27 Ultra?

Why could Samsung use the Exynos chipset in the S27 Ultra?

It was initially reported that the vanilla S27, S27 Plus, and S27 Pro will be powered by an Exynos chipset, whereas the Ultra model would feature the recently unveiled Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 processor. However, the Snapdragon chip caused a heating issue in the Galaxy S27 Ultra during internal testing conducted by the Samsung smartphone division.

A Korean publication, SEDaily, reports that the SoC exceeded its temperature threshold while running resource-demanding tasks on it, ultimately resulting in performance throttling. Samsung has reportedly been testing the chipset for over a month. The performance concerns have already been shared with Qualcomm, and both companies are said to be working on finding a solution to the problem.

If the heating problem is resolved, then Samsung will use the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 processor in the Galaxy S27 Ultra. However, if Qualcomm fails to make the needed improvements, the South Korean giant will very likely use its own Exynos 2700 chip in the upcoming Ultra model in order to make sure that its mass production can start by the end of this year. If this unlikely scenario takes place, this could be the first time the Galaxy S Ultra flagship launches with an Exynos chip in all markets.

Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 has been in the news for wrong reasons

It’s not the first time a serious issue in smartphones has been reported to be related to the latest Snapdragon processor. Many users in China owning a Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6-powered device complain about random black-screen and restart issues. The problem was believed to be caused by the chipset receiving less power in order to provide a good battery life.

Is Qualcomm having another Snapdragon 810 moment?

The overheating concerns in the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 processor are giving some users deja vu of the Snapdragon 810. For reference, it is considered one of the worst processors from Qualcomm, as it was reported to cause severe overheating and throttling.

Comment about Snapdragon 810 on Reddit. | Image by Reddit

Some users also believe that the problem might actually be with the TSMC 2 nm node on which the latest Snapdragon chip is built. The same question arose when some devices that were powered by it started randomly restarting in China. There is no official confirmation on this, but I, personally, don't think this is the case, as the latest A20 Pro chip that powers the iPhone 18 Pro is also built on the 2 nm process, and there haven't been any performance concerns on it.

Will the use of Exynos have any effect on the Galaxy S27 Ultra performance?

It's one of the questions whose answer can only be found when the device becomes public. However, there are a few things that you must be aware of about the Exynos chipset. The Exynos 2700 is also built on a 2 nm process, and Samsung has started using a physical heat sink in its processors to reduce heat generation.

Also, as mentioned above, the latest Exynos SoC defeats the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 in some important areas. All this suggests that the performance difference wouldn't be much. But again, the real performance test will only happen when and if we get to test the Exynos-powered Galaxy S27 Ultra.

There's plenty more to read about the S27 Ultra:

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Aman Kumar is a news writer at PhoneArena covering Google Pixel phones, Android features, AI-powered smartphone tools, and mobile tech news. Before joining PhoneArena, he spent over five years writing about consumer technology for publications like MakeUseOf, How-To Geek, and Guiding Tech. His current daily drivers are the Pixel 10 and Samsung Galaxy S26 Plus, while his red iPhone SE (2nd gen) remains a personal favorite. Aman also appreciates bold smartphone experiments and still considers the Nokia N-Gage one of the industry’s most iconic designs.

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