With the anticipated launch of the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra just a week away, leaks and rumors surrounding the phone are coming thick and fast. The latest details point to the flagship Android offering top-tier gaming performance, with leaked benchmark test scores that rival, or in some cases, beat the premium competition.
Given that last year's Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is a top pick in our guide to the best gaming phones, we were expecting this year's model to offer improved performance, especially since it packs an overclocked Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip. That's almost the same processor as inside the REDMAGIC 11 Pro, a phone capable of running games like Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail, and PUBG Mobile at high graphics settings, so it's fair to expect the same of the S26 Ultra.
The Geekbench test, courtesy of social media tipster Alvin (@sondesix), shows the S26 Ultra with a single-core score of 3,761 and a multi-core score of 11,454. That doesn't offer much information out of context, but it slightly beats out the REDMAGIC 11 Pro, with respective scores of 3,739 and 11,262. While pre-launch scores often don't paint a full picture, this is as good an indication as any that the S26 Ultra will be another gaming powerhouse from Samsung.
Outside of its Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, we're also expecting the S26 Ultra to come with up to 1TB of storage, 16GB of RAM, and a 6.9-inch AMOLED screen. These specs are just rumored at the time of writing, but if they're on the money, then there's even more reason to believe that the flagship could be the ideal pick for fans of the best mobile games. Our only slight concern is in terms of thermal management, given that the OnePlus 15 launched with the same chip and faced criticism for overheating issues, but, provided that the S26 Ultra's vapor chamber is as effective as the S25 Ultra's, that might not be a problem.
It's worth noting that while these scores and specs look pretty impressive on paper, we'll have to wait to get our hands on the S26 Ultra to really put it through its performance paces. Fortunately, we shouldn't have long to wait, with the big reveal almost certainly taking place during the next Galaxy Unpacked event on February 25. During the event, we'll likely get a full rundown of the specs, as well as the all-important pricing and release date details.