Snapdragon 888 benchmarks: Galaxy S21 should put up a fight against iPhone 12

(Image credit: Qualcomm)

The Snapdragon 888, Qualcomm's new system-on-chip should come very shut to matching Apple's step-setting A14 Bionic processor in many key benchmarks when information technology arrives in many of the leading Android phones side by side twelvemonth, co-ordinate to test results released by the bit maker today (Dec. 18). And that could potentially chip away at a large reward the iPhone has lorded over its Android competition in recent years.

In the results put out past Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 888'southward numbers still don't shell the ones we recorded when we tested the latest iPhone 12 models this fall. But the gap is as narrow as it's been in some fourth dimension.

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The coronavirus pandemic has altered the usual rollout plans for Qualcomm's new mobile processing platform. Near this time of year, the chip maker commonly invites a number of tech publications (including Tom'due south Guide) to test its newest chipset on a Qualcomm-supplied reference device. That'southward not feasible in an age of social distancing and stay-at-home orders, and so for the Snapdragon 888, Qualcomm has offered upwards its own testing.

According to the chip maker, it ran its benchmark tests on a device with a 6.65-inch FHD screen that had a 120Hz refresh rate. The device included 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. One core of the CPU was clocked at 2.84GHz, while three others ran at 2.42GHz; the processor included four other 1.8GHz cores.

Qualcomm pointedly avoids naming which specific phones are going to feature its processing platforms, though it has confirmed that telephone makers including LG, Motorola and OnePlus have committed to using the Snapdragon 888. The first phone to typically feature Qualcomm's new chipsets in the U.S. is Samsung'due south latest Milky way S model, and with the Samsung Milky way S21 rumored to be making a mid-January debut, we could find out what the Snapdragon 888 delivers sooner rather than later.

What the Snapdragon 888 promises

Of course, we already have some idea of what to expect from Snapdragon 888-powered devices, thanks to information supplied past Qualcomm when it unveiled the new system-on-chip before this calendar month. Qualcomm says the Kryo 680 CPU on the Snapdragon 888 boosts operation by up to 25% from the current Snapdragon 865. It also allows top frequencies of upwardly to 2.84GHz, and then the master core on the reference device used in benchmarking is pushed to the max.

In terms of graphics, the Snapdragon 888 is supposed to speed upward graphics rendering past upwards to 35% with its Adreno 660 GPU, Qualcomm says. What's more, that GPU can offer more than ability for devices with a larger thermal envelope or sustained employ cases in flagship phones — it'southward all up to the phone maker how they cull to optimize their devices.

This is Qualcomm's first mobile processing platform congenital using a 5-nanometer process, which should boost both power and efficiency. Apple'south A14 Bionic, featured in the iPhone 12 lineup, is as well a 5nm chip.

Snapdragon 888 benchmark results

Based on the numbers Qualcomm's released, you can certainly run into a big improvement with the Snapdragon 888 when running Geekbench 5. In this criterion, which tests overall operation, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 888-powered reference device posted a unmarried-core score of i,135 and a multicore result of 3,794.

Phone	Processor	Geekrbench 5 single-core score	Geekbench 5 multicore score
Snapdragon 888 reference device	Snapdragon 888	i,135	3,794
Samsung Milky way S20 Plus	Snapdragon 865	811	iii,076
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra	Snapdragon 865 Plus	985	3,294
Apple tree iPhone 12	A14 Bionic	1,593	3,859

That unmarried core performance was a twoscore% improvement over the 811 score posted by the Milky way S20 Plus, which uses a Snapdragon 865 chipset. The Galaxy S20 Ultra, running on the slightly more powerful Snapdragon 865 Plus, turned in a 985 result. On multicore tests, the Snapdragon 888 was 23% and 15% faster than the Galaxy S20 Plus and Milky way Note 20 Ultra, respectively.

The A14 flake performs better than the Snapdragon 888 on Geekbench v, but not significantly amend, at to the lowest degree on the multicore test. When we tested the iPhone 12 earlier this autumn, nosotros saw a result of iii,859. That's a little less than 2% ahead of the consequence Qualcomm just posted. The gap's a little bigger on single-core results, where the iPhone 12 scored a one,593.

Phone	Processor	3DMark Manhattan 1080p offscreen score	3DMark Aztec Ruins Vulkan 1080p offscreen score
Snapdragon 888 reference device	Snapdragon 888	169	86
Milky way S20 Plus	Snapdragon 865	128	54
iPhone 12 mini	A14 Bionic	195.7	N/A

On the graphics side of things, the Snapdragon 888-powered device posted a 169-frames per second upshot on GFXBench'southward Manhattan 3.0 1080p offscreen test. We ran that same examination on a Milky way S20 Plus and came upwards with a score of 128 fps, a 32% jump. Notwithstanding, the A14 should continue to reign supreme, as our iPhone 12 mini posted a 195.7 fps score.

Qualcomm also provided graphics numbers for GFXBench'due south Aztec Ruins Vulkan offscreen test at 1080p where the Snapdragon 888 chipset bested the Galaxy S20 Plus and its Snapdragon 865 process by 86 fps to 54 fps.

Snapdragon 888 outlook

The numbers from Qualcomm stand up out in stark contrast to some of the early leaked benchmarks for the Milky way S21, which painted a picture of a phone that was a little bit better than its predecessors, but not almost as powerful every bit Apple's contempo round of iPhones. Nosotros always suspected the benchmark leaks were a little off, though, every bit they might have featured early versions of the processor not yet optimized for superlative performance. Clearly, Qualcomm's numbers confirm that was the example.

While these new Qualcomm benchmarks give usa a better idea of what to expect when the Snapdragon 888 starts showing upwards in phones similar the Galaxy S21, it's not the terminal word on the subject field. A lot volition depend on how telephone makers themselves decide to implement the organisation-on-chip and how they balance operation with power consumption.

In other words, we won't know definitively if the iPhone 12 has a performance fight on its hands until the first Snapdragon 888-based phones start showing upwardly. We won't have long to wait — Qualcomm says those devices will launch during the first 3 months of 2021. And the Galaxy S21's rumored launch date is just around the corner.

Philip Michaels is a senior editor at Tom's Guide. He has stiff opinions almost Apple, the Oakland Athletics and sometime movies. Follow him at @PhilipMichaels.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/news/snapdragon-888-benchmarks-galaxy-s21-should-put-up-a-fight-against-iphone-12

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Snapdragon 888 benchmarks: Galaxy S21 should put up a fight against iPhone 12