Ahead of its expected launch in February 2026, the Galaxy S26 Ultra, along with the Galaxy S26 Plus, has been spotted on a popular benchmark database. I’m talking about Geekbench, which lists entries for the “SM-S948U” and the “SM-S942U,” both of which are believed to be the U.S. versions of the Ultra and the Plus models.
As shared by the renowned tipster Ice Universe on X, the model number “SM-S48U” belongs to the Galaxy S26 Ultra. The variant that underwent the CPU test featured 12GB of RAM and ran on Android 16. What’s interesting is that it featured an underclocked Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, with two prime cores clocked at 4.19 GHz.
Underclocked Snapdragon, unexpected performance
The typical prime cores of Qualcomm’s latest chipset are clocked at 4.6 GHz. That’s odd, primarily because Samsung usually equips its flagships with an overclocked version of Qualcomm’s top-tier chip marketed as the “for Galaxy” variant.
However, the configuration and frequency of the performance cores — 6 x 3.63 GHz — remains similar. Perhaps Samsung was testing the handset with an underpowered version to optimize thermals, check sustained performance, or assess the power efficiency ahead of mass production.
However, even with the underclocked Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, the purported Galaxy S26 Ultra does exceptionally well on the Geekbench 6 CPU test. The handset scores 3,466 points in the single-core and 11,035 points in the multi-core CPU performance tests.
The latter is slightly higher than what the OnePlus 15 typically scores on the same benchmark. For those catching up, the S25 Ultra scores around 3,100/9,950 points in the benchmark test, indicating that the S26 Ultra could offer a significant performance boost.
To make things even more complicated, the benchmark’s database also has an entry for the “SM-S942U” model number, which is said to be the Galaxy S26 Plus. While the smartphone also features 12GB of RAM, its prime cores are clocked at 4.74 GHz, which seems more like the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy. The single- and multi-core scores, however, are 3,378 and 11,097, respectively.
What’s puzzling here is that the S26 Ultra, with an underpowered chip, achieves a higher single-core Geekbench 6 score than the S26 Plus, with an overpowered chip. This could point toward better thermal headroom, tighter power management, or more aggressive performance tuning on the S26 Ultra.
For American buyers, the Geekbench listings for the smartphones indicate that both the S26 Ultra and the S26 Plus will be powered by one of the most powerful mobile platforms, offering blistering real-world performance and improved battery efficiency. The S26 series could break cover at the rumored Galaxy Unpacked event on February 25, 2026.
