Mobile processors qualcomm. Which Snapdragon is better: characteristics and comparison. Exynos processors - from budget phones to flagships
Qualcomm are quality solutions in the smartphone market. The company offers various options for both budget devices and more expensive models. Currently, the company's best processor is the Snapdragon 850, but it is only available in laptops. For mobile devices, the best option is the Snapdragon 845. At the beginning of next year, sales of smartphones based on the Snapdragon 855 processor will start, which should become a competitor to the Apple A12 Bionic and Kirin 980.
Qualcomm's flagship processor lineup consists of the Snapdragon 845, Snapdragon 835, and Snapdragon 821. Almost no one uses the latter two processors anymore, but they are still good options. For example, Snapdragon 835 will handle any PUBG game perfectly. You can buy smartphones with a Snapdragon 845 processor with a reserve for the future.
For mid-budget devices, Qualcomm offers Snapdragon 710, Snapdragon 670 and Snapdragon 660 processors. The latter processor is only a slightly cut-down version of the Snapdragon 835, so, for example, the Mi A2 will not be much weaker in performance than last year’s flagships. The Snapdragon 710 is perfect for both those who like to play games and those who like good battery life due to its 6 energy-efficient cores.
Among Qualcomm's budget processors, the best option at the moment is the Snapdragon 636, which is a stripped-down version of the Snapdragon 660. The Snapdragon 636 can be compared in terms of performance to the Snapdragon 820, but unlike older processors, the 636 supports QC 4.0, LPDDR4X, DSP Hexagon 680 and X12 LTE.
ARM processor is a mobile processor for smartphones and tablets.
This table shows all currently known ARM processors. The table of ARM processors will be supplemented and upgraded as new models appear. This table uses a conditional system for evaluating CPU and GPU performance. ARM processor performance data was taken from a variety of sources, mainly based on the results of tests such as: PassMark, Antutu, GFXBench.
We do not claim absolute accuracy. Absolutely accurately rank and evaluate the performance of ARM processors impossible, for the simple reason that each of them has advantages in some ways, but in some ways lags behind other ARM processors. The table of ARM processors allows you to see, evaluate and, most importantly, compare different SoCs (System-On-Chip) solutions. Using our table, you can compare mobile processors and it’s enough to find out exactly how the ARM heart of your future (or present) smartphone or tablet is positioned.
Here we have compared ARM processors. We looked at and compared the performance of CPU and GPU in different SoCs (System-on-Chip). But the reader may have several questions: Where are ARM processors used? What is an ARM processor? How does ARM architecture differ from x86 processors? Let's try to understand all this without going too deep into details.
First, let's define the terminology. ARM is the name of the architecture and at the same time the name of the company leading its development. The abbreviation ARM stands for (Advanced RISC Machine or Acorn RISC Machine), which can be translated as: advanced RISC machine. ARM architecture combines a family of both 32 and 64-bit microprocessor cores developed and licensed by ARM Limited. I would like to note right away that the ARM Limited company is exclusively engaged in the development of kernels and tools for them (debugging tools, compilers, etc.), but not in the production of the processors themselves. Company ARM Limited sells licenses for the production of ARM processors to third parties. Here is a partial list of companies licensed to manufacture ARM processors today: AMD, Atmel, Altera, Cirrus Logic, Intel, Marvell, NXP, Samsung, LG, MediaTek, Qualcomm, Sony Ericsson, Texas Instruments, nVidia, Freescale... and many more other.
Some companies that have received a license to produce ARM processors create their own versions of cores based on ARM architecture. Examples include: DEC StrongARM, Freescale i.MX, Intel XScale, NVIDIA Tegra, ST-Ericsson Nomadik, Qualcomm Snapdragon, Texas Instruments OMAP, Samsung Hummingbird, LG H13, Apple A4/A5/A6 and HiSilicon K3.
Today they work on ARM-based processors virtually any electronics: PDA, mobile phones and smartphones, digital players, portable game consoles, calculators, external hard drives and routers. They all contain an ARM core, so we can say that ARM - mobile processors for smartphones and tablets.
ARM processor represents a SoC, or "system on a chip". An SoC system, or “system on a chip,” can contain in one chip, in addition to the CPU itself, the remaining parts of a full-fledged computer. This includes a memory controller, an I/O port controller, a graphics core, and a geopositioning system (GPS). It may also contain a 3G module, as well as much more.
If we consider a separate family of ARM processors, say Cortex-A9 (or any other), we cannot say that all processors of the same family have the same performance or are all equipped with a GPS module. All these parameters strongly depend on the chip manufacturer and what and how he decided to implement in his product.
What is the difference between ARM and X86 processors?? The RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) architecture itself implies a reduced set of instructions. Which accordingly leads to very moderate energy consumption. After all, inside any ARM chip there are much fewer transistors than its counterpart from the x86 line. Don't forget that in an SoC system all peripheral devices are located inside a single chip, which allows the ARM processor to be even more energy efficient. The ARM architecture was originally designed to calculate only integer operations, unlike x86, which can work with floating point calculations or FPU. It is impossible to clearly compare these two architectures. In some ways, ARM will have an advantage. And somewhere it’s the other way around. If you try to answer the question in one phrase: what is the difference between ARM and X86 processors, then the answer will be this: the ARM processor does not know the number of commands that the x86 processor knows. And those that do know look much shorter. This has both its pros and cons. Be that as it may, lately everything suggests that ARM processors are beginning to slowly but surely catch up, and in some ways even surpass conventional x86 processors. Many openly declare that ARM processors will soon replace the x86 platform in the home PC segment. As we already know, in 2013 several world-famous companies completely abandoned the further production of netbooks in favor of tablet PCs. Well, what will actually happen, time will tell.
We will monitor the ARM processors already available on the market.
We looked at the younger lines of Qualcomm Snapdragon processors - 200 and 400, now let's move on to the older ones, 600 and 800. Snadragon 600 were created as processors for devices one step below the flagships: they often had the same amount of RAM, high-quality screen and body materials. Such processors run modern games without problems, but the performance margin for the future is small. Snapdragon 800 is a purely flagship line: it runs any games and has a good reserve for the future, supports the fastest LTE modems, gigantic amounts of RAM and the best storage devices.
Summary table of all 600 series SoCs with processor tests in Geekbench 3 and graphics in 3Dmark Ice Storm Standard:
| Processor name | Number of Cores | CPU frequency | Graphic arts | Announcement date | Geekbench 3 result | Result in 3Dmark | |
| 4 | 1.7 GHz | Krait 300, 28 nm | Adreno 320 | 1Q2013 | 1900 | 10616 | |
| Snapdragon 615/616 | 8 | 1.7 GHz | Cortex A53, 28 nm | Adreno 405 | 1Q2014 | 2720 | 10003 |
| 8 | 1.5 GHz | Cortex A53, 28 nm | Adreno 405 | 3Q2015 | 3052 | 10003 | |
| 8 | 2.0 GHz | Cortex A53, 14 nm | Adreno 506 | 1Q2016 | 4792 | 13242 | |
| 6 | 2x1.8 GHz + 4x1.2 GHz | 2x Cortex A72 + 4x Cortex A53, 28 nm | Adreno 510 | 1Q2015 | 3853 | 18274 | |
| 8 | 4x1.8 GHz + 4x1.2 GHz | 4x Cortex A72 + 4x Cortex A53, 28 nm | Adreno 510 | 1Q2015 | 4134 | 18274 |
The results are impressive - the Snapdargon 600, released 3 years ago, turns out to be on par with the new Snapdagon 435 in terms of performance, while the newer representatives of the 600th line show graphics performance at the level of the iPhone 6, and in terms of processing power - even at the level of the iPhone 6s: such performance is enough for fast work without freezes for at least another couple of years, but the newest games will already have problems with smoothness.
Summary table of all 800 series SoCs with processor tests in Geekbench 3 and graphics in 3Dmark Ice Storm Standard:
| Processor name | Number of Cores | CPU frequency | Processor architecture and process technology | Graphic arts | Announcement date | Geekbench 3 result | Result in 3Dmark |
| Snapdragon 800/801 | 4 | 2.3 GHz | Krait 400, 28 nm | Adreno 330 | 2Q2013 | 2642 | 14172 |
| 4 | 2.7 GHz | Krait 450, 28 nm | Adreno 420 | 4Q2013 | 3140 | 17843 | |
| 6 | 2x2.0 GHz + 4x1.5 GHz | 2x Cortex A57 + 4x Cortex A53, 20 nm | Adreno 418 | 2Q2014 | 2952 | 20451 | |
| 8 | 4x2.0 GHz + 4x1.5 GHz | 4x Cortex A57 + 4x Cortex A53, 20 nm |
Adreno 430 | 2Q2014 | 3218 | 29879 | |
| Snapdragon 820/821 | 4 | 2.2 GHz | Kryo, 14 nm | Adreno 530 | 1Q2016 | 5450 | 34285 |
| 8 | 4x2.5 GHz + 4x1.9 GHz | 4x Kryo 280 + 4x Kryo 280, 10 nm | Adreno 540 | 1Q2017 | 6376 | 38518 |
Here the numbers speak for themselves - every year the new Snapdragon processor was in the top of the best processors, and 2017 is no exception. If we take the best processor from the 600th line, 652, then it is between the Snapdragon 808 and 810, the lag behind the 835 is twofold. Now such performance turns out to be excessive - there are no programs or games that the Snapdragon 835 cannot handle, but this, on the other hand, is good - there is a solid performance reserve for the future.
Which Snapdragon processor is better? To answer the question, we will compare current models of Qualcomm chipsets, which can be found not only in old smartphones, but also in phones produced in 2017. First, we will compare the characteristics of Snapdragon processors and talk about the key features of each model, after which we will confirm our predictions regarding operating speed with the results of testing smartphones in popular benchmarks.
Characteristics of Snapdragon processors
The key characteristics of any processor are the manufacturing process, the architecture of the central processor cores, the number of cores and their clock speed, as well as the graphics accelerator of the chipset. These specifications should be given the closest attention.
The heating of the smartphone, the degree of its susceptibility to throttling (a drop in clock frequency under load) and the operating time of the smartphone on a single charge depend on the technical process. The “smaller” the technological process, the more economically the chipset uses the battery.
The architecture of the cores, their number and clock frequency affect the speed of operation. Powerful cores, particularly Cortex A72 or Kryo, consume more power but perform many more operations per clock. Simply put, they are faster. Economical cores, which include cores based on the Cortex A53 architecture, are designed to solve simple tasks. They do not consume the battery as aggressively, but they also work slower with processes.
| 430 | 625 | 650 | 820 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Technical process | 28 nm | 14 nm | 28 nm | 14 nm |
| Number of Cores | 8 | 8 | 6 | 4 |
| Processor architecture | 8x ARM Cortex A53 | 8x ARM Cortex A53 | 2x ARM Cortex A72+ 4x ARM Cortex A53 | 4x Kryo CPU |
| Clock frequency | up to 1.4 GHz | up to 2.0 GHz | up to 1.8 GHz | up to 2.15 GHz |
| Graphics accelerator | Adreno 505 GPU | Adreno 506 GPU | Adreno 510 GPU | Adreno 530 GPU |
| LTE modem | LTE Cat.4 download 150 Mbps transmission up to 50 Mbit/s | LTE Cat.13/7 download 300 Mbps transmission up to 150 Mbit/s | LTE Cat.7 download 300 Mbps transmission up to 100 Mbit/s | LTE Cat.13/12 download 600 Mbps transmission up to 150 Mbit/s |
The number of processor cores affects the speed of the phone in multitasking mode. If the cores are built on the same architecture, then the more there are, the better. But when switching to a new architecture, the rule no longer works.
Smartphones with a quad-core Snapdragon 820 processor are faster than 8-core phones built on previous generations of chipsets. The difference in speed is explained by the fact that the improved cores perform more operations per unit of time, due to which they confidently outperform their “slow” predecessors.
The graphics adapter determines the speed of the smartphone in games and when working with 3D graphics. Qualcomm Snapdragon processors use different generations of Adreno graphics, which are a priori characterized by high performance. Updated versions of the adapter with a larger index are faster than their predecessors, which affects the framerate. This will be clearly visible from the benchmark results.
Key features of Qualcomm Snapdragon processors
In this part of the article we talk about the key features of various models of Qualcomm Snapdragon processors, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses in terms of efficiency, operating speed and degree of heating when solving complex (and not so complex) problems.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 430
Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 is the weakest chipset on our list. Its only advantage is its low cost. Manufacturers who want to offer the buyer an inexpensive smartphone choose this chipset as a compromise solution.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor is built on 8 reference Cortex A53 cores, which operate at a very low frequency by modern standards 1.4 GHz. Accordingly, you can forget about the high speed of the smartphone even before purchasing it. Graphics accelerator Adreno 505 also grazes the rear ones. It will still allow you to play at minimum settings, but the framerate will be low.
Since the Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 is manufactured using a 28 nm process, it drains the battery relatively quickly for such a slow processor. Compare battery life ratings and . Due to the same technical process, heating in games and when working with heavy applications will be noticeable.
Snapdragon 625 processor
Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 is a very interesting chipset, in a sense, even cool. Of course, we are not talking about cosmic speeds here; the main advantage of the model is extremely low energy consumption with an almost complete absence of heating and throttling.
Excellent energy efficiency is explained by the fact that the Snapdragon 625 processor is manufactured using a modern 14 nm process technology. For the same reason, he always remains cold, even in games. Graphics accelerator power Adreno 506 Enough for playing at minimum and medium settings.
The speed of the central processor is not prohibitive, but higher than that of the S430. The performance of the smartphone is also higher - Android will run smoothly, and there should be no problems with applications, at least if the Snapdragon 625 is paired with at least 3 GB of RAM. ( .)
Snapdragon 650 processor
Compared to the Qualcomm Snapdragon processors that we reviewed earlier, the 650 Dragon is almost a champion in terms of speed. This is explained by the fact that the processor architecture uses improved Cortex A72 cores. Yes, the total number of cores is smaller, but by performing more operations per clock cycle, the processor runs much faster, as do the phones built on it.
A graphics accelerator gives a performance boost in games Adreno 510. When compared to the Snapdragon 625 and 430 processors, the difference is obvious. You will find the comparison results at the end of the publication in GFX benchmarks. The frame rate in games will be higher, and you can play not only at medium, but also at maximum settings.
The disadvantage of the Snapdragon 650 processor is that it is produced according to the 28 nm process technology. Because of this, the chipset gets very hot and drops frequencies under heavy load, including in 3D toys. This feature should be taken into account by those who like to play for a long time and do not want to experience a drop in fps. Battery consumption is also higher, and the battery life of the smartphone is shorter.
A few words about Snapdragon 652. It differs from the 650 model in the increased number of cores to eight, with additional cores built on the Cortex A72 architecture (powerful). Thanks to this, it is even faster, although it does not reach the S820. The disadvantages due to the 28 nm process technology are the same - throttling and high battery consumption.
Snapdragon 820/821 processors
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820/821 - top chipsets of 2016. Their strengths are high operating speed and relatively low battery consumption, as for fast processors. The chipsets are equipped with the Adreno 530 graphics accelerator, which last year broke records and outperformed almost all competitors.
If you need a very fast smartphone, or if you want to play heavy games at maximum framerates, smartphones with a quad-core Snapdragon 820 processor are an excellent choice. Excellent, but not without its shortcomings. The problem is that smartphones based on the Snapdragon 820, despite the 14 nm manufacturing process, are susceptible to overheating, and they sometimes heat up to uncomfortable temperatures.
Qualcomm engineers tried to solve the problem in one of the versions of the Snapdragon 821. The “cold” version of the S821 received the AB index, and it operates at the same reference frequencies as the S820. Smartphones with a quad-core Snapdragon 821 processor are not always faster than 820 Dragon phones, but they can be cooler. In a sense, this is even better, because the 820 is already fast enough.
The Snapdragon 821 version with the non-AB index is a processor overclocked to 2.3 GHz on the same architecture and with the same number of cores (4 Kryo CPU cores). An example of a smartphone with a 4-core Snapdragon 821 non-AB processor. For comparison, or are built on the Snapdragon 821, which operates at reference frequencies without increasing processing power.
Snapdragon 835 processors
The latest Snapdragon 835 chipset is a blast in terms of performance. In this publication we will not talk about it in detail, because a special material is devoted to comparing the S835 and S821 processors.
Snapdragon processors: comparison in benchmarks
Let's move on to comparing Snapdragon processors in popular benchmarks. There will be a lot of charts below that may not display correctly in older browsers and some built-in browsers on mobile platforms. If you encounter this problem, open the publication in the current build of Mozilla, Opera or Chrome.
A few explanations about the benchmarks. GeekBench evaluates the power of the central processor, which affects the smooth operation of the operating system.
Snapdragon processors in GeekBench 4 (multi-core)
Snapdragon processors in GeekBench 4 (single-core)
In Antutu and BaseMark OS 2.0 we compare the overall speed of the smartphone.
Snapdragon processors in AnTuTu 6
Snapdragon processors in BaseMark OS 2.0
GFX tests evaluate the power of the graphics accelerator, which correlates with the speed of working with 3D graphics and frame rates in games.
GFX 3.1 Manhattan
GFX 3.1 Car Scene
Snapdragon processor comparison: summary
Any conclusions or comments on the test results are unnecessary; all that remains is to summarize the above and highlight the key features of Snapdragon processors:
- Snapdragon 430: a budget option, a compromise between the comfort of using the phone and its cost.
- S625: the best choice for those who need a cool smartphone with high battery life.
- S650/652: a good option for gamers and those looking for a fast and inexpensive smartphone.
- S820: a very fast chipset that will last for a couple of years. Smartphones with a quad-core S820/S821 processor are not cheap, although there are affordable options.
- S835: the best processor at the time of publication.
New publications
If you've ever bought a flagship Samsung smartphone, or more precisely, a Galaxy S series model, then you've most likely encountered that stores can offer several variants of the same phone model with differences in price. And they seem to have the same color and memory capacity, but their model numbers are different. Why is this so?
The fact is that smartphone models, for example Samsung Galaxy S10+, are coming to Ukraine for two markets at once: for Europe/Asia and the USA, and their difference is in the processor model. Thus, all European and Asian distributors supply Samsung Galaxy phones based on the Exynos processor, and retailers from America supply Qualcomm Snapdragon.
Precisely because we canbuy a Samsung smartphone in both versions, in our material today we would like to tell you more about these processors, their differences, and find out which processor is more powerful - Qualcomm Snapdragon or Exynos?
Why are the processors in Samsung Galaxy S smartphones different?
Before we tell you “what,” we would like to answer the question “why.” Starting with the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus, the South Korean company has started shipping its flagship smartphones with different chips. A very strange move, but we can explain why this is so:
1.Qualcomm is an American company
No matter how strange it may sound, this is one of the main reasons why phones with Snapdragon processors are supplied in the United States. Americans trust their own brands and manufacturers more, and practically do not trust Asian ones (especially if we remember the recentban of Huawei and ZTE smartphones in the USA ).
2.CDMA support
Some popular American operators, namely Sprint and Verizon, use CDMA rather than GSM. What is CDMA We talked about it in one of our earlier materials. This type of mobile network is not compatible with Samsung Exynos, but is supported in Snapdragon processors. In addition, patents for CDMA belong to the same Qualcomm, so even if Exinos processors begin to support this type of carrier network, Samsung will need to pay Qualcomm for the use of their technologies.
3.Convenience for Samsung
This point follows from the previous two - it is much easier for Samsung to use a different processor model in its devices for North America than to include CDMA support or fight the trust of American consumers. Especially considering that Qualcomm themselves supplies them with processors at a discount.
Exynos processors - from budget phones to flagships
Exynos is a family of ARM microprocessors and a product of Samsung themselves. The first processor model was released in 2010 and was then called Hummingbird, and was later renamed Exynos 3110. This was the company’s very first “S” flagship, namely Samsung Galaxy S . Then the company began to introduce new processor models using new technologies: the clock speed increased and the power consumption of processors decreased, the number of cores increased, and the architecture changed.
Exinos chips are supplied to all models of Samsung phones - budget and top-end. For example, budget Samsung smartphones run on 5th and 7th series processors - in the Samsung Galaxy A5 and Galaxy J3. For mid-priced smartphones, the Exynos 9610 processor is provided, but it is not currently used in any device model.
The current top-end processor from Samsung is the Exynos 9820, which powers the Samsung S10, S10e, S10+ and, most likely, will power the Galaxy Note 10. The processors of the flagship gadgets are built on the company’s own architecture, Mongoose, and are made using an 8-nanometer process technology. Moreover, the latest model uses NPU (neural processing unit) and UFS 3.0 type of flash memory.
Snapdragon processors are the most popular chips in the world
As we mentioned earlier, Snapdragon is a family of mobile chips (for both smartphones and tablets) from California-based Qualcomm. The first smartphone based on a processor from Qualcomm was Toshiba TG01 released in 2009, which ran on the Snapdragon GSM8250. This is a model from the company's first generation of processors (S1). They were built on the Cortex-A8 (1 GHz) or ARM11 (600 MHz) architecture, they used Adreno, ARMv6 and ARMv7 graphics cores, provided for recording and playback of HD video (720p), supported Wi-Fi, DDR1 type of operational memory and more.
Until 2012, the company released its processors divided into generations (up to S4). From 2007 to 2012, processors received more cores, better versions of Adreno graphics chips, built-in mobile modems (2G/3G/4G) and other modules. After 2012, Qualcomm began labeling versions of their chips with number series, such as Snapdragon 400 or Snapdragon 800.
At the moment, the most powerful processor of the Snapdragon family, andthe results of the study , the most powerful mobile processor in the world is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855. This is an eight-core chipset made on a 7-nanometer process technology, clocked at more than 3.0 GHz. This processor supports Snapdragon X24 LTE technology, which allows you to work in 4G networks at a speed of 2 Gbps.
Which Samsung Galaxy smartphone to choose - Exynos or Snapdragon processor? How to distinguish them?
So we come to the point where the mentioned processor models differ and which Samsung phone to choose - based on the Exinos or Snapdragon processor? Let's say right away, if you are not a technical geek and you decidebuy Samsung Galaxy S10 , then any of the processor options will suit you.
You can find a sufficient number of benchmarks and comparisons of chip performance on the Internet. If we take all the results of such studies and get an “average”, then we can say that Samsung Exynos and Qualcomm Snapdragon processors practically they do not differ. However, we specifically highlighted “practically”.
Snapdragon processors perform much better in games, as they have a powerful Adreno graphics core (30,000 points more according to AnTuTu for Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ models). In turn, Exinos chips are more energy efficient and discharge slower than their American “brothers”.
In order to summarize this material and answer the main question “which processor should you choose a flagship from Samsung with?” let’s say that if you are a real gamer, and every frame in a demanding game is decisive for you, then it is better to take a closer look at devices based on Snapdragon (if take the S10 model, then these are devices marked, for example G-9370). If you are an ordinary user, then an Exynos device (labeled G-973, without the “0” at the end) is also suitable for you. Let us repeat, the capacities of both models are almost identical, and differ by 2-5%.
