Samsung, as always, will use two chipsets for the two variants of the flagship Samsung Galaxy S8 smartphone. This is for the different regions where it sells its phones, and these chips come with different specs and connectivity levels, thus catering to different markets. While the Snapdragon 835 is supposedly the best chipset this year from Qualcomm, Samsung had just recently taken its wraps off the Exynos 9 series processor, the Exynos 8895.
Let us compare the two premium chipsets to see how powerful are the two processors powering the variants of one of the best flagships of the year, the Samsung Galaxy S8.
| Snapdragon 835 | Exynos 8895 | |
| CPU Cores | Kryo 280 | Custom + Cortex A53 |
| CPU Configuration | 4 x 2.45 GHz 4 x 1.9 GHz |
4 x 2.5 GHz 4 x 1.7 GHz |
| GPU | Adreno 540 | Mali-G71 MP20 |
| RAM | 2 x 32-bit LPDDR4X 1866MHz | LPDDR4X |
| Camera | 16MP Dual, 32MP Single | 28MP+16MP Dual, 28MP Single |
| Flash | eMMC 5.1 / UFS 2.1 | eMMC 5.1 / UFS 2.1 |
| Video Recording | 4K @ 30FPS | 4K @ 120FPS |
| Video Playback | 4K UHD @ 60fps | 4K UHD @ 120fps |
| Modem | LTE Cat. 16 4CA 1 Gbps down LTE Cat. 13 2CA 150 Mbps up |
LTE Cat. 16 5CA 1 Gbps down LTE Cat. 13 2CA 150 Mbps up |
| Charging | Quick Charge 4.0, WiPower | Samsung Adaptive Fast Charge, Qi, PMA |
There was a noticeable difference when the battery charging speeds were tested and it was the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 one that has a significantly higher charging speed. Not a big difference but one that is noticeable on a flagship phone where every minute of faster charging is important to know.
One of the advantages of the Exynos 8895 chipset when it comes to camera is that it supports 4K video recording at 120 fps but the Snapdragon 835 processor can support 4K videos at 30 fps.
Another noticeable difference between the two processors is that the GPU included is from Adreno series in the Snapdragon chipset but the Exynos 9 series has the Mali-based GPU. But at the same time, it is worth noting that the Mali-G71 GPU has a 20-core configuration. Samsung also claims that there is about 60% increase in battery performance due to this new graphics card.
Even though the video recording capability is better on the Exynos-based Samsung Galaxy S8, we are sure the company won’t be letting the International users take advantage of the same because we see 4K video possible at only 30 fps.
Conclusion – Even though Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon 835 processor looks like a powerful one, the Exynos chipset has nothing less and it also has enough to beat the Snapdragon-powered units. Since the units are present based on the market, you shouldn’t have to worry about the variant you are going to get because the performance is top-notch in both the smartphone variants, with several tests done.
