If there’s an Android handset that’s comparable to the iPhone, it’s Samsung’s latest Galaxy S phone. More than the Pixel 6 Pro, OnePlus 9 or whatever the latest Android version of the month, the Galaxy S22 range offers a level of design, functionality and style that almost resembles Apple, with an undeniable identity and influence on the rest of the industry.
But while iPhone and Galaxy fans may argue over who has the better screen, design, and camera, there’s no denying that Apple is the undisputed leader when it comes to processors. Samsung, the world’s biggest chipmaker, still uses Qualcomm’s latest flagship Snapdragon chip for its North American Galaxy phones, while the rest of the world gets Samsung’s Exynos processor. The Snapdragon generally comes close, but none can match Apple’s power, processing, and efficiency.
Foreign models of Samsung’s flagship phones use the Exynos 2200 processor.
Adam Patrick Murray / IDG
This was supposed to change with the new Exynos chip. After Samsung launched the Exynos 2100 in 2021 and ditched its custom CPU cores for the Cortex-X1 CPU core, it placed a renewed emphasis on performance and power efficiency. Similarly, this year’s Exynos 2200 chip emphasized graphics performance with a new Samsung Xclipse GPU based on AMD’s RDNA 2 architecture. When it launched, Samsung boasted that the chip would enable “the ultimate mobile gaming experience” and for a time it looked like the international S22 might finally give Apple’s flagship iPhone chip a race for his money.
So we were excited to test it. We already know that Qualcomm makes excellent mobile processors that rival Apple’s A-series chips, but a top-tier Exynos chip from Samsung could be a game-changer. If an S22 with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is one of the best phones on the planet, imagine how much bigger it could be with Samsung controlling the entire stack with a high-powered Exynos chip.
Unfortunately, it is not the case. Our colleagues at Tech Advisor have tested and reviewed the Galaxy S22+ with the Exynos 2200 processor and, well, the results aren’t great. It should be noted that they have always given the phone 4 stars, which means that it is among the best Android phones. In a vacuum it’s plenty fast too, but that starts to degrade a bit when you see how the chip compares to Apple’s recent A-series processors.
That’s not much of an improvement over the Exynos 2100’s multi-core score of 3,263 and far from a performance breakthrough. The CPU numbers here aren’t even better than a two-year-old iPhone 11 with an A13 processor. Granted, processor scores aren’t everything, but with camera and communication features demanding more and more resources every year, phones need as much power as possible. Especially when you’re spending over a thousand dollars on a new handset that claims to be a ‘game changer’.
It’s not much better when it comes to the neural processing engine. Using Geekbench ML, Apple’s A15 has a CPU TensorFlow Lite score of 950 and a Core ML score of 2511, while the Exynos 2200 barely tops 400. And that’s with Samsung boasting that the NPU of the Exynos 2200 “has doubled compared to its predecessor, allowing more parallel computations and improving AI performance.” So…yuck.
And it’s even worse when you look at graphics performance. While last year’s Exynos 2100 actually beat the Snapdragon 888 using Mark’s Wildlife 3D test, the S22+ barely tops last year’s score and isn’t in the same league as the A15.
This is the biggest disappointment of the Exynos 2200. Samsung has teamed up with AMD for the Eclipse GPU side with a unique hybrid GPU that is “positioned between the console and the mobile GPU”. Samsung describes it like this: Xclipse is the combination of ‘X’ which stands for Exynos, and the word ‘eclipse’. Like an eclipse, the Xclipse GPU will end the old era of mobile gaming and usher in an exciting new chapter.
The only thing that is overshadowed is its performance. Not only does it barely beat last year’s Wild Life score (5,852), it’s beaten by both the A15 and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, which topped 10,000 in reported tests. GPU performance is hugely important in today’s phones and not just for gaming – smartphone user interfaces have become extremely advanced and the GPU is responsible for making sure everything works, runs and displays in candy.
The iPhone 13 Pro and Galaxy S22+ will both get updates four years from now, but the iPhone will likely run a lot smoother.
Michel Simon/IDG
This performance gap will be even more problematic in four years when Samsung promises that the S22 will get One UI 8. Along with the launch of the S22, Samsung also announced that it will provide four years of One UI and Android OS upgrades, which will require a phone that can withstand four years of use. These benchmarks do not really give us confidence.
The Galaxy S22 with the Exynos 2200 chip was supposed to be the phone that finally overtook the iPhone, and the Exynos chip was rumored to land in Samsung’s next Galaxy Book. But if that’s the best Samsung can do, maybe they should just give up.
