Korean firm’s latest flagship smartphone comes with two processor variants – Snapdragon 820 and Exynos 8890 – with the UK getting a less powerful version



The UK version of the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge will not come with Qualcomm’s latest and fastest processor the Snapdragon 820 but with the less powerful Samsung-made Exynos 8890. Some think UK consumers are getting a raw deal, but actually, the choice of processor doesn’t matter.

Recent performance measures of the various chips released by benchmarking firm AnTuTu have shown that not only is the Snapdragon 820 6,518 points ahead of the Exynos 8890 (Qualcomm’s scoring 136,383 to Samsung’s 129,865), but even Apple’s A9 chip used in last year’s iPhone 6S is 2,792 points ahead of the Samsung chip.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Top 10 smartphone chips measured by AnTuTu’s benchmarking app. Photograph: AnTuTu

This may appear bad for the Exynos, but looking at the jump in processing power over last year’s top non-Apple made processors, both chips have a lead of at least 48,000 points in AnTuTu benchmarks, the equivalent of a 60% performance increase.

And crucially, raw performance is no longer an issue for most smartphones. Since the chips from 2015 made significant leaps over those from 2014, smartphones have had enough power to produce a smooth and sprightly experience for all but the most demanding of tasks.

That means our smartphones feel faster and get work done more quickly. Out-and-out processing power no longer matters until you attempt to perform a processor-intensive task such as rendering video.

Most people will not be attempting to render video or crunch vast amounts of data in seconds, instead they will email, text, browse and shoot photos. Sure, the camera might respond a little quicker now than it did two years ago, but the rest of the power has gone into making the whole experience snappier while attempting to prolong battery life.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge with Exynos 8890 chip. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

Efficiency has become the most important factor for new processors over raw power. Meanwhile, how well optimised the software of the phone is to its hardware has become the bigger challenge for smartphone manufacturers. Get it right and a smartphone can feel snappy, even on lower-powered hardware, get it wrong and it feels slow and frustrating even when running on powerful hardware.

The classic case used to be Samsung’s version of Android called TouchWiz. The Korean company used to make hundreds of modifications to the software that were not well optimised meaning they slowed down the phone with bloated and unnecessary frippery.

Samsung has since learned that users are sensitive to sluggish performance, cutting back on its customisations of the standard Android experience and producing some of the fastest-feeling smartphones available, including last year’s Galaxy S6.

Google’s Nexus devices, of which the 5X and 6P are the latest versions, are also good examples of how software optimisation is the key to making a smartphone perform well. While the Nexus 6P has last year’s most powerful chip, the Snapdragon 810, the cheaper 5X had Qualcomm’s less powerful Snapdragon 808, but it wasn’t obvious in use because of well optimised software.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge with Exynos 8890 processor has an 8-core design split into a more powerful quad-core processor and a less powerful and more efficient quad-core processor. Whether that will be more battery efficient than Qualcomm’s straight quad-core design remains to be seen. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

The one area where raw power still counts is for games, where the graphics processor does the heavy lifting. Here the Snapdragon 820 has a sizable lead, but it will likely take years before games will be significantly improved to take advantage of the extra power.

A slightly worse performing processor will mean nothing to most users in the short term, as long as the software running on it is well designed. The bigger question is how battery life will be impacted by the various 2016 processors. On that the jury is still out.

A thorough review of the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge will be available later this week after a full week of testing.