Samsung Galaxy Note7 first benchmarks

The Samsung Galaxy Note7 is built on the S7 platform. This means the chipset is either Snapdragon 820 or an Exynos 8890 (which one you get depends on geography) and 4GB of RAM. Yep, there's no upgrade in RAM over the S7, despite the numerous 6GB rumors.

Anyway, we just got an early unit that isn't 100% ready for a review. It's the Exynos version, which is what Europeans have to look forward to, while the US is getting the Snapdragon one.

We'll start a full review when we get a proper retail unit, but we did try some benchmarks. And it comes as no surprise the Galaxy Note7 matched the S7 and S7 edge, the Exynos ones.

AnTuTu 6 does show a small gain over the S7 edge (both versions). Samsung touched up the software - definitely visually, but perhaps under the hood too. Or it could just be the benchmarks margin of error.

AnTuTu 6

Higher is better

• Moto Z Droid (Snapdragon)
  151619
• OnePlus 3 (Snapdragon)
  141764
• Galaxy Note7 (Exynos)
  134660
• Galaxy S7 edge (Snapdragon)
  132849
• Galaxy S7 edge (Exynos)
  129229
• Huawei P9 Plus (Kirin 955)
  97392

Basemark OS 2.0 recorded a significant jump in performance - maybe Samsung really did tune up the engine. We'll redo the benchmarks once we get our hands on a retail unit, but so far it looks like the Note7 might bring a performance boost even if the specs on paper don't show it.

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

• Moto Z Droid (Snapdragon)
  2690
• Galaxy Note7 (Exynos)
  2676
• OnePlus 3 (Snapdragon)
  2365
• Galaxy S7 edge (Snapdragon)
  2352
• Huawei P9 Plus (Kirin 955)
  2099
• Galaxy S7 edge (Exynos)
  2050

The Exynos 8890 chipset features an octa-core CPU with four of Samsung's own Mongoose cores (instead of the usual Cortex-A72) and four Cortex-A53. The Snapdragon 820 version has all custom cores by Qualcomm - four Kryo cores split into two groups, 2x 2.15GHz and 2x 1.6GHz.

This gives the Exynos-powered Note7 a slight edge in multi-core performance, but the Snapdragon version has a lead in single-core tests. The differences are small enough that you shouldn't fret over which Note7 version is available in your local store.

GeekBench 3 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Huawei P9 Plus (Kirin 955)
  6660
• Galaxy S7 edge (Exynos)
  6600
• Galaxy Note7 (Exynos)
  6311
• Moto Z Droid (Snapdragon)
  5566
• OnePlus 3 (Snapdragon)
  5520
• Galaxy S7 edge (Snapdragon)
  5420

GeekBench 3 (single-core)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3 (Snapdragon)
  2383
• Galaxy S7 edge (Snapdragon)
  2345
• Moto Z Droid (Snapdragon)
  2345
• Galaxy S7 edge (Exynos)
  2151
• Galaxy Note7 (Exynos)
  2143
• Huawei P9 Plus (Kirin 955)
  1892

Going over to the graphics tests, the Galaxy Note7 is a hair ahead of the S7 edge (Exynos) in one test, a bit behind in the other so the results are inconclusive. Here, Snapdragon's Adreno 530 GPU edges out Exynos' Mali-T880 MP12.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Galaxy S7 edge (Snapdragon)
  32
• Moto Z Droid (Snapdragon)
  32
• OnePlus 3 (Snapdragon)
  31
• Galaxy S7 edge (Exynos)
  29
• Galaxy Note7 (Exynos)
  28
• Huawei P9 Plus (Kirin 955)
  10

GFX 3.1 Car scene (offscreen)

Higher is better

• Moto Z Droid (Snapdragon)
  19
• Galaxy S7 edge (Snapdragon)
  18
• OnePlus 3 (Snapdragon)
  18
• Galaxy Note7 (Exynos)
  16
• Galaxy S7 edge (Exynos)
  15
• Huawei P9 Plus (Kirin 955)
  6.2

We'll re-run the benchmarks when we get a hold of a retail unit, but we don't expect much to change.