Galaxy S9 Snapdragon 845 performance can't really be quantified by new benchmark results

Last updated: February 12th, 2018 at 11:43 UTC+01:00

For years, Qualcomm'due south flagship fleck has powered almost all loftier-cease Android smartphones and that will exist the case throughout 2018 besides. The company announced the Snapdragon 845 processor terminal yr and the Galaxy S9 is going to exist the start device to use it. Samsung will only ship the Milky way S9 with Qualcomm's chip in select markets like N America. The visitor'southward own Exynos 9810 scrap will power the flagship in every other market.

At that place accept been questions well-nigh the Galaxy S9 Snapdragon 845 performance already with some reports suggesting that at that place volition be a functioning difference between Galaxy S9 models powered by the two competing processors. One report even claimed that the Galaxy S9 Snapdragon 845 functioning will exist "mediocre" compared to the Exynos 9810. The claim was based on an anonymous benchmark effect which gave the Snapdragon 845 single-core and multi-core scores of 2378 and 8132 respectively.

Samsung'southward Exynos 9810 chip hasn't been benchmarked as all the same so it's unclear how it'south going to stack upwards against the Qualcomm fleck equally far as the numbers are concerned. In that location might be some differences, though, even though our Snapdragon 845 vs Exynos 9810 specs comparing shows that they're quite similar in their technical capabilities.

Galaxy S9 Snapdragon 845 performance

For case, the Exynos 8895-powered Milky way Annotation viii scored 1960 and 6473 on Geekbench'due south CPU benchmark for unmarried-core and multi-core scores, respectively. The Snapdragon 835-powered model came in slightly lower with scores of 1804 and 6292.

The numbers themselves don't betray a earth of a departure between the performance of both models of the same device. The of import thing to go along in mind is that benchmark scores are not the end-all, be-all of performance indicators. A next-generation bit plain brings performance improvements but 1 can't simply rely on the benchmark results to quantify that gain and make arbitrary judgments on how the device will perform in the real earth.

Qualcomm has an annual tradition of inviting members of the printing to the company's headquarters in San Diego where they get to play with a reference device powered past its high-end chip. They are likewise able to run benchmarks to see how the numbers compare to previous generations. It invited members of the press to come up and try out the Snapdragon 845 at its HQ final week.

The reference device isn't a epitome of an upcoming device. It'due south a working smartphone that'due south meant for in-house utilise. Qualcomm uses them to examination its new chips in as close to a real-world environment as possible. The Snapdragon 845 reference phone had a five.5-inch ii,560×1,440 pixel resolution display, the 2.8GHz Snapdragon 845 flake with 6GB of RAM and a 12/thirteen-megapixel dual camera at the back.

Galaxy S9 Snapdragon 845 performance — Prototype courtesy of hothardware.com

Multiple Geekbench 4 runs on the Snapdragon 845 reference device give average figures of 2400 and 8400 for single-core and multi-core respectively. Based on these numbers alone, the Galaxy S9 Snapdragon 845 performance seems 25 per centum faster compared to the existing flagship.

However, the gain can hands be attributed to a generational gap with existing devices. This is in line with Qualcomm's previous claim that the Snapdragon 845 volition exist up to 25 percent faster than the Snapdragon 835 with an up to thirty percent gain in GPU performance also. The thing is, though, that the numbers never tell the whole story.

You can't bet your coin on the Galaxy S9 Snapdragon 845 performance existence exactly 25 pct better compared to the Snapdragon 835-powered Galaxy S8. That'south because criterion results are unable to predict the functioning in a existent-world scenario. What these numbers substantially confirm is that Qualcomm'southward claims about generational performance improvements are more often than not accurate.

The reference devices used for these benchmarks don't take whatever additional software, no custom skins or user interface elements. They don't have dozens of apps that you'd find on an average user'due south phone and afterward, at that place's no user data on these devices besides. They don't account for the variations in how dissimilar people tend to use their smartphones and perhaps nigh crucially, how different OEMs optimize their handsets.

It's no secret that Samsung's Snapdragon variants aren't optimized likewise every bit the Exynos variants and we tin can expect this to happen with the Galaxy S9 and the Galaxy S9+ as well. That is why these benchmark scores must always be taken in consideration with visible factors such equally lag or stutters, the time information technology takes for a photo to be processed or the power to properly power a game with heavy graphics to get a true sense of the operation gains.

That'due south not to say that you might experience whatever of those kinks on the Galaxy S9 only we can only form a truthful picture of the handset's performance when it's tested out in real-earth scenarios. That'due south only going to happen after the Milky way S9 and the Galaxy S9+ are released next month once Samsung officially announces them on February 25.

Since at that place are no benchmark results for the Exynos 9810 at this point in time, it's unclear how Samsung's ain chip stacks up against the Qualcomm contender equally far every bit the numbers are concerned. If history is whatsoever indication, we can be certain that it'southward going to have a leg up on the Snapdragon 845.