Galaxy S27 Ultra could go Exynos again, and this time, Snapdragon fans might get jealous

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Samsung appears to be on track to launch the Galaxy S27 series early next year. The series gains a new Pro variant in addition to the three existing models, but the bigger, more polarizing change so far is the Galaxy S27 Ultra’s new camera bump , which would invariably remind you of the iPhone 17 (and 18) Pro. Now, another surprising piece of news appears to raise the bar for the Galaxy S27’s surprises, and this one particularly talks about its innards.

South Korean publication Money Today (via tipster Jukan ) says Samsung will launch a Galaxy S27 Ultra variant driven by the Exynos 2700 . The report notably contradicts previous claims (and natural assumptions) that the Ultra would only use a Snapdragon chip. If that proves true, it would be the first Ultra in the Galaxy S series to feature an Exynos chip since the Galaxy S22 Ultra five generations earlier.

As with previous years, Samsung would not fully relinquish the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro (or whatever the new top-tier chip may be officially called ). Instead, it is said to take a dual-chip approach, offering Exynos 2700 on the Galaxy S27 Ultra in certain markets only. Buyers in the US will most likely continue to get a Snapdragon-powered Ultra.

The decision may be backed by the reported performance upgrades of the Exynos 2700. Korean publication Yonhap News reported last month that Samsung has been testing the Exynos 2700 against the various Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 trims . According to these internal tests, the Exynos 2700 delivers 19% higher CPU performance than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 6 and roughly 10% better than the Pro variant. Similar trends are supposedly seen across GPU and NPU benchmarks too.

These numbers are supposedly based on Geekbench 6.5 tests. But as we know, benchmarks can be deceiving because they often don’t account for sustained usage. When we tested the Galaxy S26 Plus’ Exynos 2600 against the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 , we found the Exynos to outperform the latter in benchmarks. But the Exynos’s shortcomings were exposed when it started to heat up prematurely.

Samsung could reportedly also use Exynos 2700 selectively on the Galaxy S27 Pro — just like the Ultra. Samsung is also expected to sell Exynos-powered Galaxy S27 and the Galaxy S27 Plus in certain markets, but that’s a relatively less surprising premise.

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