Samsung Galaxy S8 Showdown: Exynos 8895 vs. Snapdragon 835, Performance & Battery Life Tested
by Matt Humrick on July 28, 2017 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Samsung
- Galaxy
- Mobile
- SoCs
- Snapdragon 835
- Exynos 8895
- Galaxy S8
The Samsung Galaxy S8’s headline features are its edge-to-edge Infinity Display and striking new design. Of course it still comes packed with the latest hardware and technology like previous Galaxy phones, including iris recognition, wireless charging, and a flagship SoC. Actually, there are two different SoCs for the S8 and S8+. Most regions around the world will get Samsung's Exynos 8895, while regions that require a CDMA modem, such as the US and China, will get Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835. Both SoCs are built on Samsung's 10nm LPE process and are paired with 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 64GB of UFS NAND.
While no market receives both types of phones through official channels, with the wonders of modern shipping, anyone with a bit of time and patience would have little trouble tracking down the out-of-region version of the phone. Consequently, for the nerdy among us, we simply have to ask: how do these dueling SoCs compare? Which SoC – and consequently which phone – is better?
Today we’ll delve into the performance differences between the Snapdragon 835 and Exynos 8895 to help answer those questions. We'll also see how well they work with the Galaxy S8’s other hardware and software when we evaluate its system performance, gaming performance, and battery life.
Samsung Galaxy S8 Series | ||
Samsung Galaxy S8 | Samsung Galaxy S8+ | |
SoC | Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 (US, China, Japan) 4x Kryo 280 Performance @ 2.36GHz 4x Kryo 280 Efficiency @ 1.90GHz Adreno 540 @ 670MHz Samsung Exynos 8895 (rest of world) 4x Exynos M2 @ 2.31GHz 4x Cortex-A53 @ 1.69GHz ARM Mali-G71 MP20 @ 546MHz |
|
Display | 5.8-inch 2960x1440 (18.5:9) SAMOLED (curved edges) |
6.2-inch 2960x1440 (18.5:9) SAMOLED (curved edges) |
Dimensions | 148.9 x 68.1 x 8.0 mm 155 grams |
159.5 x 73.4 x 8.1 mm 173 grams |
RAM | 4GB LPDDR4 (US) | |
NAND | 64GB (UFS) + microSD |
|
Battery | 3000 mAh (11.55 Wh) non-replaceable |
3500 mAh (13.48 Wh) non-replaceable |
Front Camera | 8MP, f/1.7, Contrast AF | |
Rear Camera | 12MP, 1.4µm pixels, f/1.7, dual-pixel PDAF, OIS, auto HDR, LED flash | |
Modem | Snapdragon X16 LTE (Integrated) 2G / 3G / 4G LTE (Category 16/13) Samsung LTE (Integrated) 2G / 3G / 4G LTE (Category 16/13) |
|
SIM Size | NanoSIM | |
Wireless | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac 2x2 MU-MIMO, BT 5.0 LE, NFC, GPS/Glonass/Galileo/BDS | |
Connectivity | USB Type-C, 3.5mm headset | |
Features | fingerprint sensor, heart-rate sensor, iris scanner, face unlock, fast charging (Qualcomm QC 2.0 or Adaptive Fast Charging), wireless charging (WPC & PMA), IP68, Mobile HDR Premium | |
Launch OS | Android 7.0 with TouchWiz |
Our initial look at Snapdragon 835 revealed that its Kryo 280 performance cores are loosely based on ARM’s Cortex-A73 while the efficiency cores are loosely based on the Cortex-A53. Samsung's Exynos 8895 also has an octa-core big.LITTLE CPU configuration, but uses four of its own custom M2 cores paired with four A53 cores. Samsung introduced its first custom CPU core, the M1, last year. Compared to ARM’s A72, integer IPC was similar but the M1 trailed the A72 in efficiency. The M2 does not appear to be a radical redesign, but rather a tweaked M1 that offers the usual promises of improved performance and efficiency. Are the changes enough to top Qualcomm’s flagship SoC?
Battery life is one of the most important metrics for a smartphone. A bunch of cool features and lightning quick performance will do little to temper your frustration if the phone is dead by lunchtime. This was an issue for the Galaxy S6, which came with a small-capacity battery that contributed to its at-times disappointing battery life. Samsung increased their battery capacity for the S7 models, but there’s no further increase for the S8s. The smaller S8 retains the same 3000 mAh capacity as the S7, while the the S8+ drops 100 mAh compared to the S7 edge. Any improvement to battery life for this generation will need to come from more efficient hardware, and indeed at least for Qualcomm, this is precisely the angle they've been promoting to hardware developers and the public alike.
Previous Galaxy phones delivered good performance, but shortfalls in one or more performance metrics have kept them from being a class leader. Will the updates to the S8’s hardware and software finally smooth away these performance wrinkles? Will efficiency improve with the new 10nm SoCs? Did Samsung reduce power consumption in other areas? It’s time to take a closer look at the Galaxy S8.
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Icehawk - Saturday, July 29, 2017 - link
NoRo_Ja - Saturday, July 29, 2017 - link
Samsung please bless us with a non edge S8.asfletch - Sunday, July 30, 2017 - link
S8 Active?Lolimaster - Saturday, July 29, 2017 - link
Why bother with "custom" "fancy name" Cortex A73 cores when the vanilla A73 is just better while being cheaper. Just stick the adreno to it.skavi - Saturday, July 29, 2017 - link
I remember when the Anandtech comments section used to be filled with intelligent, insightful discussion.Nullify - Saturday, July 29, 2017 - link
That was right around the time the A7 64bit processor came out and Anandtech did a detailed discussion of it. Once it was revealed how far ahead Apple was compared to other ARM processors (like Exynos or Snapdragon) Anandtech was suddenly labeled as being biased. It didn't help when Anand left to work for Apple further fueling the conspiracies that this site is biased.It's amazing to me that hatred of Apple completely blinds people to the obvious: Apple simply has the most advanced ARM processor in the world.
Lolimaster - Sunday, July 30, 2017 - link
I wouldn't call it the most advanced, it's a SOC designed for 1 specific device for 1 specific kind of OS. We'll probably never know how it performs on an android device (which is becoming kind of a resource hog with many parts that could be optimized).akdj - Monday, July 31, 2017 - link
It’s poweri the iPad, iPhone, Apple Watch (variation on the A series processors), as well as in their latest generation MacBook Pros, both as an evolving, with software touch strip and secure enclave w/Touch ID. Other sensors have been born as well, including their imaging processor, the ISP. It’s definitely hard to argue it’s not the most advanced, considering the A10X in the new iPads are built on the 7nm process.That’s a first. And their scores (which are insane) will soon (2 months? 3?) be trumped by the 7nm iPhone's A11. As technology marches on...
Speedfriend - Tuesday, August 1, 2017 - link
I think you mean 10nm....Lolimaster - Sunday, July 30, 2017 - link
For example, Windows Phone 8 was snappier than the Android of it's time both with the same ARM SOC.