We’re just over a week away from the scheduled unveiling of Samsung’s much hyped new flagship – the Samsung Galaxy S8 – and we probably already know as much as we want to know about it, thanks to countless leaks and analysis. But information about the new device still trickles out from time to time – and now we have initial benchmarks of the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus. From these numbers, it looks like the variant powered by the Exynos 8895 chipset performs marginally better than the one with the Snapdragon 835.
If you’ve been following Android news, you would probably know that both the Exynos 8895 and the Snapdragon 835 are made with Samsung’s 10 nanometer FinFET process, and in Samsung’s own foundries. This partnership is why the Samsung Galaxy S8 has dibs on the first batches of the SD835. Benchmark numbers are just that – but they do give us an idea of raw performance, and this case, Geekbench says that the Exynos 8895-powered variant (SM-G955F) of the Galaxy S8 Plus seems to have better single core and multi core numbers than the SD835-powered one (SM-G955U).
We’ve all seen Samsung’s strategy in the past years, where they release flagships half having Exynos branded chipsets and half with Qualcomm’s chipsets. The US market almost has monopoly of the Snapdragon variants, while the international market usually gets the Exynos variants. In this case, the US market might feel it’s getting the raw end of the deal. But in reality, such small margins are really not noticeable in daily usage. Both phones will most likely be blazing fast, fast enough that you won’t feel the margin.
If you’re in the US and are planning to get the new Galaxy S8, you would most likely get one with the SD835 inside. Samsung does this because the Snapdragon chipset seems to handle US networks better. But for real, we think there’s no need to fret over these initial numbers. If you’re a user, you really won’t feel a gap in the performance – even if the numbers seem to show it.
important information
What countries and what are the SKU numbers for the Exynos models? Exynos variant normally has bootloader which can be unlocked. Last year, Samsung shipped Exynos Galaxy S7 to Canada with the same LTE bands as U.S. models. BOOOM. Buy Canadian Galaxy S7, unlock bootloader, use on AT&T!
But this year they are shipping the locked-down bootloader Snapdragon variant to Canada. I’m trying to find an Exynos model with AT&T LTE bands.