TEST: We benchmark the Snapdragon 835 inside the Xperia XZ Premium

The Sony Xperia XZ Premium was among the first devices to have a Snapdragon 835 inside and naturally we were curious how fast exactly it is.

We've already seen what the S835 can do in our detailed Galaxy S8 review so let's compare it to Sony's flagship phone.

We compared the engine inside the Xperia XZ Premium could only be against the Exynos 8895 Octa inside the international versions of the Galaxy S8 duo, the Snapdragon 835 in their US models, Apple's A10 Fusion chip and Huawei's HiSilicon Kirin 960.

We also included the older Snapdragon 820 and Snapdragon 821 via the likes of the older Xperia XZs and the LG G6, OnePlus 3T and Google Pixel XL. That should give us an idea of how much an improvent the SD835 actually is.

Starting off with the CPU tests the Sony Xperia XZ Premium scores similarly to Snapdragon 835-powered Galaxy S8+ and the Exynos 8895 Octa and higher than the Kirin 960-propelled P10 Plus. In the GeekBench 4 multi-core scores (where all 8 cores are going full speed) the Xperia XZ Premium lags slightly behind the Galaxy S8 and S8+ (in both Exynos and Snapdragon flavor) but is in front in the compound Basemark OS II.

When it comes to single-core performance the Xperia XZ Premium's 2.45GHz Kryo cores are outpaced only by Apple's custom cores. The Snapdragon 835's single-core performance is practically the same as the single-core performance of the Kirin 960 and the Exynos 8895 Octa.

GeekBench 4 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S8+
  6338
• Samsung Galaxy S8
  6175
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  6106
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  5837
• Huawei P10 Plus
  5821
• Apple iPhone 7 Plus
  5664
• OnePlus 3T
  4364
• Google Pixel XL
  4152
• Sony Xperia XZs
  3979
• LG G6 (US)
  3648

GeekBench 4 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 7 Plus
  3473
• Samsung Galaxy S8
  1945
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  1943
• Samsung Galaxy S8+
  1938
• Huawei P10 Plus
  1937
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  1915
• OnePlus 3T
  1890
• LG G6 (US)
  1792
• Sony Xperia XZs
  1724
• Google Pixel XL
  1507

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  4127
• Huawei P10 Plus
  3447
• Samsung Galaxy S8+
  3401
• OnePlus 3T
  3328
• Samsung Galaxy S8
  3272
• Sony Xperia XZs
  2606
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  2364

Graphics are a different story - the Mali-G71 MP20 GPU inside Samsung's Exynos 8895 Octa scores higher than Qualcomm's Adreno 540. Graphics-wise the Snapdragon 835 is only a slight improvement over the 821, at least in Basemark X.

The results continue in the same pattern in Basemark ES 3.1/Metal where the Adreno 540 sits behind the Mali GPU which in turn is second to the PowerVR Series7XT GPU inside Apple's A10 chipset.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S8+
  43862
• Samsung Galaxy S8
  42370
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  38507
• OnePlus 3T
  36958
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  34951
• Sony Xperia XZs
  33815
• LG G6 (US)
  32041
• Google Pixel XL
  30861
• Huawei P10 Plus
  30602

Basemark ES 3.1 / Metal

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 7 Plus
  1517
• Samsung Galaxy S8
  1189
• Samsung Galaxy S8+
  1111
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  817
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  727
• LG G6 (US)
  647
• OnePlus 3T
  641
• Google Pixel XL
  626
• Sony Xperia XZs
  623

So it appears we are looking a chipset that's a definite step up from the Snapdragon 821, but not really a huge one.

Naturally, the latest chipsets are as much about futureproofing as serving to the current needs on the market, so don't expect the Xperia XZ Premium feel drastically faster than its Snapdragon-821 rivals. It's only under extreme loads that differences begin to appear. Of course once software catches up and starts utilizing more of the available power things will change.

What's most important is real-life performance and the Sony Xperia XZ Premium does spendidly - the phone is snappy, runs cool, and is a real pleasure to use.