Samsung’s Galaxy S26 series is now official, and early hands-on testing is already revealing one of the most important upgrades for everyday users: dramatically improved heat management on the Exynos 2600 chip found in the Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S26+ in select regions.
Only hours after fresh comparisons helped settle the Exynos 2600 vs. Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 performance discussion, a new round of real-world stress testing put the spotlight on something many buyers care about even more than raw benchmark numbers—how hot the phone gets when you actually use it. And for anyone who has owned earlier Exynos-powered phones, the takeaway is simple: Samsung appears to have finally tackled the long-running overheating reputation.
A tech-focused YouTube channel ran the Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S26+ through common performance checks like AnTuTu, 3DMark, and CPU throttling tests before moving to what often exposes thermal weaknesses fastest: demanding mobile games at max settings. The gaming lineup included League of Legends: Wild Rift, Genshin Impact, and Honkai, played back-to-back with the room temperature held around 26 degrees Celsius.
In League of Legends: Wild Rift on the base Galaxy S26, the phone averaged about 32 degrees Celsius—an encouraging sign for sustained play. In Genshin Impact on the larger Galaxy S26+ over more than 15 minutes of gameplay, the front surface peaked at roughly 38 degrees Celsius, while the back hovered around 37 to 37.5 degrees Celsius. Then came Honkai on the Galaxy S26+—and although frame rates dipped noticeably at times, temperatures still stayed controlled, with the front reaching a maximum of about 39 degrees Celsius and the back topping out at just over 38 degrees.
For users who remember prior generations where heat spikes and throttling could show up quickly under heavy load, these numbers are a meaningful improvement. It suggests Samsung wasn’t just chasing higher benchmark scores this year—it also focused on keeping performance stable by controlling heat buildup inside the phone.
So what changed? The Exynos 2600 reportedly improves thermals through three major hardware and manufacturing advances.
The first is Samsung’s 2nm Gate-All-Around (GAA) process. This next-generation transistor design surrounds the channel on all sides using vertically stacked nanosheets, improving electrostatic control and allowing the chip to run at lower voltages more efficiently. Better efficiency typically translates into less wasted energy—and less heat—especially during sustained workloads like gaming or graphics-heavy apps.
The second is new Fan-Out Wafer-Level Packaging (FOWLP). Instead of relying on conventional substrate-based packaging, this approach uses wafer-level integration and places input/output terminals outside the chip itself. The end result is a thinner, more compact package with more direct connections and improved efficiency—another contributor to reducing heat and improving overall thermal behavior.
The third—and arguably the most practical change for real-world temperatures—is Heat Path Block (HPB) technology. This is described as a copper-based heat sink that makes direct contact with the application processor while moving the DRAM to the side. By improving the heat flow path and reducing thermal resistance—reportedly by up to 30 percent—HPB targets one of the most common problems in high-performance smartphone chips: localized hot spots that cause that familiar “heat bubble” feeling near the processor area.
Early testing can’t replace long-term ownership, but the initial signs are promising. If the Exynos 2600 maintains these cooler temperatures across more devices and longer sessions, the Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S26+ could mark a turning point for Samsung’s Exynos lineup—especially for gamers, power users, and anyone who wants flagship performance without a phone that feels uncomfortably warm in the hand.
