Samsung’s best handsets are traditionally released in two variations — one version of the device would be equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC while another version would be carrying the South Korean tech giant’s homegrown Exynos processor. This coming year is no different, as the Galaxy S9 is expected to be released with an Exynos processor for its home market and a Qualcomm processor for other areas like the United States.
While Samsung’s S-series devices are often on the bleeding edge of technology, the Exynos-powered variants of the devices are usually slightly superior to the smartphones’ Qualcomm-powered versions. If recent reports turn out to be accurate, however, it appears like Samsung’s upcoming 2018 flagships would feature the most prominent discrepancies yet between the devices’ Exynos and Qualcomm-powered variants.
According to a recent report from TweakTown , rumors have recently emerged stating that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC for the Galaxy S9 and S9+ would be built on the 10nm FinFET LPE node . The Exynos 9810 that is also rumored for the upcoming 2018 flagship, on the other hand, would be made on the significantly superior 10nm LPP process.
The differences between the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845’s LPE nodes and the Exynos 9810’s LPP nodes are quite notable. Performance-wise, the LPP process would roughly give the Exynos chip around 10 percent more power and 15 percent more battery efficiency. Considering that the Galaxy S-series is all about numbers and performance, the inferiority of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, when compared to the Exynos 9810, seems to be incredibly vast.
If any, the additional 10 percent performance and 15 percent more battery from the Exynos 9810 chip would affect the activities of users who are fond of creating videos in 4K at 60fps, or those who use their devices for multitasking.
Samsung, after all, uses the S-series’ multimedia and multitasking capabilities as a huge selling point for the smartphone line. Thus, by making its Qualcomm Snapdragon 845-powered devices significantly inferior to its Exynos-powered line, Samsung is risking quite a lot of ire from users who would end up paying the same amount of money for a device that is noticeably weaker than one released for a different market.
The Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+’s performances have already been a huge point of interest among smartphone fans recently after the 2018 flagship’s benchmark scores emerged on Geekbench. As noted in this previous report from the Inquisitr , the scores of the Galaxy S9 on Geekbench were found to be far inferior to the iPhone X .
Fortunately, it seems like Samsung is at least pushing the design of its upcoming smartphones forward. As noted in a recent report from Forbes , rumors have also emerged showing what appears to be a true bezel-less Samsung smartphone , which would likely be revealed within the next few years.