Galaxy S20 Exynos vs Snapdragon battery life and performance, or why Samsung fans are angry
Last week, despite the coronavirus fears, Samsung decided to hold its annual shareholder meeting after all, as the outbreak was winding down in Korea, and used the time to answer some really tough questions.
What is the reason for sticking to the poor performance of Exynos and how to improve it?
Samsung Galaxy S20 Snapdragon vs Exynos models performance
It used to be worse, though, as previous iterations of the S-line or Note handsets used to only get Snapdragon chipsets in the US, while the global versions got the Exynos models. With the Galaxy S20 series, even the Korean units are powered by Snapdragon 865.
Every year we have hoped for Samsung to either give us the same device or make their own parts perform on par with the competition. They have failed to deliver on these requests over and over again and the performance gap only seems to widen over time. In the age of transparency, it is time for a change and for us consumers to have the right to choose what we spend our hard earned money on.
Are the Exynos 990 chipsets really that inferior to the Snapdragon 865 ones as Samsung shareholders and fans are hinting here? On paper, no, not really.
Snapdragon 865 vs Exynos 990 vs Apple A13 specs
| Snapdragon 865 | Exynos 990 | Snapdragon 855+ | Apple A13 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Production process | 7nm EUV | 7nm EUV | 7nm (TSMC FF) | 7nm (TSMC N7P) |
| Processor cores | 1x Kryo 585 (custom A77) @2.84GHz
3x Kryo 585 @2.42GHz 4x @1.8GHz |
2x Exynos M5@2.73GHz
2x Cortex A76@2.5GHz 4x Cortex A55@2GHz |
1x Kryo 485 Gold (custom Cortex-A76) @ 2.96GHz
3x Kryo 485 Gold (custom Cortex-A76) @ 2.42GHz 4x Kryo 485 Silver (custom Cortex-A55) @ 1.80GHz |
2x Lightning @2.66GHz
4x Thunder @1.7GHz |
| GPU | Adreno 650 at 587MHz | Mali-G77 MP11 | Adreno 640 | Apple custom quad-core |
| Modem | X55 5G modem (add-on)
up to 7.5 Gbps over 5G, and 3 Gbps download speeds on LTE |
Exynos 5123 (Category 24) Downloads up to 7.3Gbps (mmWave), 5.1Gbps (sub-6GHz), or 3Gbps (4G LTE), 8xCA |
Snapdragon X24 LTE (Category 20) Downloads: up to 2Gbps, 7xCA Uploads: up to 316Mbps X50 5G modem add-on |
Intel XMM7660 (Category 19) Downloads: up to 1.6Gbps, 7xCA Uploads: up to 225Mbps |
| AI co-processor | Yes, Hexagon 698 | Yes, dual-core NPU | Yes, Hexagon 690 | Yes, octa-core Neural Engine |
| Video encode | 8K HDR at 30fps 4K HDR at 120fps |
8K HDR at 30fps 4K HDR at 120fps |
4K HDR | 4K HDR at 60fps |
| Features support | QHD+ @144Hz or 4K@60Hz display refresh
up to 200MP single or 2x64MP dual camera up to 16 GB DDR5 Bluetooth 5.1/10Gbps 60GHz Wi-fi |
UFS 3.0 storage support for up to 2.9GB/s speeds
Single-camera up to 108MP up to 16 GB DDR5 120Hz display refresh rate |
8K 360 VR video playback
Always-on noise cancellation |
Computational photography
Machine learning capable of 1 trillion operations per second |
As you can see, the peak clock frequency of the Snapdragon 865 cores is slightly higher (2.84GHz vs 2.73GHz), the display refresh rate support is 144Hz vs 120Hz for the Exynos, and the single camera resolution can go up to 200MP as opposed to 108MP with Samsung’s solution.
Samsung Galaxy S20 Snapdragon vs Exynos benchmark scores
| Galaxy S20 Ultra Snapdragon 865 (SM-G986U) | Galaxy S20 Ultra Exynos 990 (SM-G986B) | |
|---|---|---|
| Geekbench 5 single/multicore | 923/3291 | 952/2886 |
| AnTuTu | 568000 | 515098 |
| GFXBench Manhattan 3.1 on-screen (graphics) | 88fps | 76fps |
As you can see, the Exynos 990’s powerful M5 Mongoose core holds its own against the Snapdragon 865 Kryo 585. When the whole chipset gets involved, though, including the slower core clusters and the graphics calculations, the Snapdragon jumps ahead indeed.
It’s not something you’d notice in your daily interaction with the S20 series, but the measured performance differences are still there.
Samsung Galaxy S20 Snapdragon vs Exynos models battery life comparison
When comparing the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra Snapdragon vs Exynos battery life tests, here’s the tally:
- up to 33% longer battery life of Galaxy S20 Ultra Snapdragon 865 in 60Hz vs 120Hz display mode.
- up to 22% longer battery life of Galaxy S20 Ultra Exynos 990 in 60Hz vs 120Hz display mode.
- up to 25% longer battery life of Galaxy S20 Ultra Snapdragon 865 vs Exynos 990 in 60Hz display mode.
- up to 27% longer battery life of Galaxy S20 Ultra Snapdragon 865 vs Exynos 990 in 120Hz display mode.
The takeaway? Yes, the Exynos 990 models of the Galaxy S20, S20+ and Ultra for markets like Europe are indeed performing worse in benchmark and battery life tests compared to their Snapdragon 865 counterparts. Are the differences drastic?
Well, you may not care about synthetic benchmark scores, as these chipsets are extremely powerful anyway, but a user would certainly notice a few more battery hours with one and the same usage from two otherwise identical S20 series phones. What do you think?