Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Leak Reveals Major Upgrades Ahead of Launch

The upcoming Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is expected to arrive with Qualcomm’s next flagship chip—the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2—according to leaked firmware files. It will also ship with One UI 8.5 based on Android 16 right out of the box.

This lines up with a recent report from tipster Ice Universe which highlighted Samsung’s new strategy. Under this approach foldable phones receive the newest One UI version first and then it gets refined for the Galaxy S series.

The leaked firmware was found on Samsung’s own server suggesting the company is already testing One UI 8.5 for the S26 lineup.

The firmware includes the serial number PMK8850 which likely belongs to Snapdragon’s next-gen chip. For comparison the Galaxy S25 Ultra used the Snapdragon 8 Elite which had the 8750 serial number. So it’s quite likely that the S26 Ultra will continue using Qualcomm’s top-tier chipset.

However not all models in the Galaxy S26 series may use Snapdragon. The regular Galaxy S26 and S26+ are expected to feature Samsung’s own Exynos 2600 processor. This chip is said to offer strong CPU and GPU performance. Another report claims that Samsung has also found a way to improve the Exynos 2600’s cooling which could make it more reliable.