The implications surprised us.

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Samsung’s Exynos processors have in no blueprint reasonably been ready to are residing up to their Snapdragon counterparts. Whether we’re talking concerning the 990 in the S20 or the 850 in the A21s, Qualcomm’s chips have repeatedly enjoyed a overjoyed lead by formulation of power and efficiency.

That could well also be changing with the newest Exynos 2100 processor that powers the Galaxy S21 phones spherical the field. Samsung made a little bit of a splash for the length of the start of the chip, declaring “Exynos is relieve” with a processor that “sets a brand fresh customary for top payment cell experiences.”

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That’s a intrepid assertion, and we had been before everything skeptical. Whereas the 2100 is well an development over the old Exynos flagship processor, bringing an integrated 5G modem, make stronger for 144Hz shows, and a 5nm project with a Cortex-X1 CPU, we puzzled if it would after all compete with the newest from Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 888. 

First let’s peek at how the Exynos 2100 in the S21 compares to the Exynos in the S20, as examined by our sister field in the UK, Tech Advisor.

Geekbench 5

Multi-core

S20: 2299

S21: 3263

That’s a pleasant jump in one year-over-one year efficiency and reveals that Samsung’s claims aren’t valid lip provider. The PCMark Work 2.0 score noticed very good gains besides, with a resounding score of 14,732 versus decrease than 11,000 with the 990. That’s a gigantic efficiency jump that’s bigger than the Snapdragon’s one year-on-one year gains.

galaxy s21 front Michael Simon/IDG

The Galaxy S21 is powered by the newest Qualcomm flagship processor, the Snapdragon 888.

But comparing the Exynos 2100 in opposition to the 990 is no longer steadily a signal that it would compete with the 888. So with out additional ado, listed below are the numbers you’ve been looking forward to:

Geekbench 5

Single-core

S21 Snapdragon 888: 1,076

S21 Exynos 2100: 1,070

Multi-core

S21 Snapdragon 888: 3,223

S21 Exynos 2100: 3,263

PCMark Work 2.0

S21 Snapdragon 888: 13,070

S21 Exynos 2100: 14,732

Now we’re getting somewhere. Now not handiest are the Exynos 2100’s Geekbench Multi-core and Work 2.0 results good improvements over those of its predecessor, but it undoubtedly additionally bests the Snapdragon 888 in a head-to-head matchup. And that’s with much less RAM than the S20 (8GB vs 12GB).

Graphics are impressive besides. Whereas the Exynos 2100 is mute the employ of a Mali GPU, the results are rather great in accordance to the Snapdragon 888 the employ of 3DMark’s grisly-platform Natural world benchmark.

3D Ticket Natural world

S21 Snapdragon 888: 5,733

S21 Exynos 2100: 5,852

The Snapdragon 888 performs a little bit better with more graphics-intensive tasks, as viewed by the frame-payment results from GFXBench’s tests:

GFXbench Aztec Ruins Vulkan

S21 Snapdragon 888 (Excessive): 35 fps

S21 Snapdragon 888 (Regular): 55 fps

S21 Exynos 2100 (Excessive): 26 fps

S21 Exynos 2100 (Regular): 35 fps

The implications had been great nearer with the The fresh york tests, with the Exynos 2100 edging out the Snapdragon 888 with 100-plus fps. Nonetheless you reduce it, those are better than comely-sufficient numbers, positioning the Exynos processor as a competitor to the newest flagship Snapdragon. It even closes the outlet some with Apple’s A14 Bionic processor (even though both chips mute have a ways to crawl to remove up).

The Exynos 2100 could well also mute proceed a little bit by formulation of battery existence. Whereas we’ll crawl more in-depth with our formal critiques, battery existence benchmarks had been reasonably a little bit different when running the Work 2.0 test with the shroud situation to 200 nits and adaptive refresh became on. On the Snapdragon 888 mannequin, I got nearly 10 hours of battery existence, whereas the Exynos 2100 counterpart barely hit 8 hours. Whereas both of those numbers will procure you thru most days, it appears to be like as even though Samsung has a little bit more work to complete with power efficiency.

Even so, the Exynos processor in the Galaxy S21 is a resounding entry into a world dominated by Qualcomm and its Snapdragon processors. If the Exynos 2100 processor wasn’t prepared for the anxious U.S. audience, the numbers we’re seeing imply the Exynos 2200 very well will be, in particular if AMD’s Radeon graphics power the following GPU as expected.

In actual fact, benchmarks don’t sigh the full yarn, but Samsung has made a serious and intrepid jump in CPU efficiency with its newest Exynos processor. If the S21 is any indication, Snapdragon Galaxy phones could well also at final be prepared for his or her shut-up.

Substitute 12: 00PM ET: Added a link to the Galaxy S21 review on our sister field, TechAdvisor.

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Michael Simon covers all things cell for PCWorld and Macworld. It’s in all probability you’ll maybe continually in discovering him alongside with his nostril buried in a shroud. The correct formulation to yowl at him is on Twitter.