The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Performance Preview: Sizing Up Cortex-X2
by Dr. Ian Cutress on December 14, 2021 8:00 AM ESTSystem-Wide Testing and Gaming
For our system wide tests, we had time to go through Geekbench 5, PCMark, and GFXBench. For workload based testing, we see performance uplifts with the S8g1, and it is a noting that here we tested PCMark with both performance mode on and off, which gave a +10% increase in the score – we’ve seen this before running PCMark on both Arm and x86 devices where turbo and favored cores can have large effects on scores. By contrast, GB5 scored the same.
In our PCMark tests, it's clear who the new ruler of the roost is.
On the graphics side, Qualcomm’s new number-less Adreno that is advertised as being ‘new from the ground up (but we won’t tell you how)’ again offers generational improvements for next year’s Android flagships. Qualcomm historically also offers better graphics performance per watt, so we’ll have to wait until we get the devices on hand to showcase that data. But overall, the gains in these tests show a large +50% performance jump over previous generation S888 graphics performance. In 2022, we'll have MediaTek’s flagship trying to aim for the same market but based on the Mali GPU, and graphics is an area that Qualcomm historically outpaces Mali designs quite easily. The only serious competitor in this space is Apple.
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tuxRoller - Tuesday, December 14, 2021 - link
Android let's you do this? With root, sure, but that's hardly a supported experience & certainly isn't a stable one unless you are willing to go without Google services.Although I still will not pay for an Apple device, Google has convinced me they aren't interested in making Android great for consumers. They can't even be trusted to reliably sync browser data & that is a f*|<ing trivial problem.
Dolda2000 - Tuesday, December 14, 2021 - link
Running Linux on desktop computers isn't exactly a "supported" configuration either. Fortunately, it doesn't have to be, and the same thing is generally true for Android phones as well (though not quite as true as it should be, to be sure).tuxRoller - Wednesday, December 15, 2021 - link
They aren't the same thing.For one, yes, Linux is a supported OS on certain, mostly enterprise, machines, though I do understand your point.
Second, phones don't yet have an equivalence to acpi & UEFI, so you're largely at the mercy of the OEM.
Am I missing something?
Fulljack - Wednesday, December 15, 2021 - link
nah, I'm using root and all my google services—even banking apps are fine. what are you talking about?Meteor2 - Friday, December 17, 2021 - link
Chrome syncs perfectly between Windows, iPadOS, and Android for me.TheinsanegamerN - Friday, December 17, 2021 - link
I can plug my android phone into any PC and browse the filesystem to my hearts content. I can upload my own music to any folder I wish, load ROMs, ece.Nicon0s - Saturday, December 18, 2021 - link
"Android let's you do this?"Yes it does.
Qasar - Tuesday, December 14, 2021 - link
" As usual, it's far slower than iPhones. People are getting ripped off when they buy slower Android hardware instead of iPhones. "ill take the android phones over the iphone any day, im NOT paying for the apple tax, ( apple's products are just too over priced) and the fact, that you cant add storage to them via a micro SD card. so no thanks, owning anything made by apple, is more of a status symbol, then anything else now
Duncan Macdonald - Tuesday, December 14, 2021 - link
That depends on what they use their phones for. For people who do not play demanding games on their phones Android phones are far better value for money, for people that do play demanding games then the higher performance from Apple may be worth the much higher cost.Reflex - Tuesday, December 14, 2021 - link
The 6-10 years of support for iPhones more than mitigates what is at this point a very minor price difference outside of the very low end. iPhone SE is only $400 after all. Android phones in that price range are not great performers and have at best 2 years of support typically.Even a used iPhone will typically have years more support than a comparably cheap new Android device, and for a non-power user that's great. I'll likely never have to upgrade my aunt's iPhone 8, which I got for her a few years ago when WinPhone died off and which has years of support left.