The short version
- Qualcomm says recent reports about thermal problems with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 are "inaccurate".
- Its marketing chief, Don McGuire, also posted that there are "no systemic thermal issues" with the chip family.
- Samsung hasn't commented, so it's still unconfirmed whether the Galaxy S27 Ultra uses Snapdragon or Samsung's own Exynos 2700. Since then, a Korean report has claimed the Exynos beat the Snapdragon in Samsung's tests.
- The Galaxy S27 series is expected in early 2027. There's no India price yet, but the Extreme Gen 6 is coming to India in other phones, including the iQOO 16.
What started this
On October 16, Korea's Seoul Economic Daily reported that Samsung's internal tests found the Extreme Gen 6 running past its heat limits inside the Galaxy S27 Ultra. According to that report, Samsung asked Qualcomm to fix it this month and kept the Exynos 2700 as a backup. We covered it in our original story.
Image: Zerocade
What Qualcomm said
Qualcomm sent the same statement to 9to5Google and Android Headlines the day the report broke:
"Recent reporting about thermal issues related to Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 is inaccurate."
The rest of the statement said Qualcomm is "proud of the innovation and strong momentum" behind the chip and continues to "work closely with global OEMs to deliver premium user experiences". McGuire's separate post on X said there are "no systemic thermal issues" with the 8 Elite Gen 6 family.
Reading the wording
The wording is worth a closer look.
- "Inaccurate" disputes the reporting, but doesn't say which part is wrong: the overheating, the deadline, or the Exynos backup plan.
- "No systemic thermal issues" rules out a fundamental flaw in the chip. It says nothing about how one particular phone design handles heat.
A chip can be fine on its own and still need tuning inside a thin phone. That's why throttling is often as much about cooling as about silicon. Our thermal throttling explainer covers how it works.
For context, the Extreme Gen 6 is the first phone chip that Qualcomm says runs cores at 5 GHz. It's built on a 2nm process, and Qualcomm claims 13% faster CPU and 44% faster graphics than last year's chip. Pushing clock speeds that high is exactly what makes heat harder to manage.
Image: Zerocade
What's happened since
On October 25, Korea's Chosun Biz reported Samsung's own internal test results, summarised by GSMArena. In Geekbench 6.5 multi-core, the Exynos 2700 reportedly scored about 13,000, against about 11,000 for a Xiaomi phone using the Extreme Gen 6. Those are leaked, unverified numbers from Samsung's side, but they explain why the Exynos option keeps coming up.
Samsung is also dealing with heat in a different way. A Korean court has fined it over the Game Optimizing Service, which throttled Galaxy S21 and S22 performance in games while Samsung advertised them for gaming. Samsung plans to appeal.
What's still unknown
The big question is Samsung's. Neither the report nor Qualcomm's denial says which chip will power the S27 Ultra, and Samsung hasn't spoken. Reports even disagree on the new S27 Pro: one says Snapdragon-only, another that it uses Snapdragon in select regions.
On paper, a firm denial from the chipmaker makes a full switch to Exynos less likely. It doesn't rule one out, though. Samsung has split chips by region before, most recently with the Exynos Galaxy S22 Ultra in Europe.
What it means for Indian buyers
The Extreme Gen 6 is coming to India regardless. iQOO has confirmed the iQOO 16 will use it, though no India price is out yet. Our Gen 6 vs Extreme Gen 6 explainer breaks down what the Extreme adds.
If you're waiting for a Galaxy S27 Ultra, the chip question will only be settled at launch, expected in January or February 2027.
What to watch next
Watch for Samsung's launch announcement, which chip the Indian S27 Ultra gets, and the first independent heat and throttling tests once phones with the Extreme Gen 6 reach reviewers.
