Samsung Galaxy S10 and S10+ with Exynos 9820 Octa benchmarked

Samsung's fresh new S10 lineup is once again powered by the best the industry can offer - Snapdragon 855 and Samsung's in-house Exynos 9820 Octa chipset. We already managed to put a Snapdragon 855 phone through its paces in our Xiaomi Mi 9 review, but we were eager to test Samsung's flagship SoC.

And as luck would have it we are currently in possession of the Exynos-powered Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10+, so we wasted no time and put them through our benchmark gauntlet.

Anyway, the Exynos 9820 Octa's CPU configuration has two big Mongoose M4 cores clocked at 2.7 GHz. The other two powerful cores are Cortex-A75 ticking at 2.4 GHz while the four power-efficient cores are Cortex-A55 running at 1.9 GHz.

Samsung was able to pull this off thanks to the so-called DinamIQ architecture by ARM. Long story short, the DinamIQ enables different types of cores to run simultaneously, always achieving optimal performance and power efficiency.

The Exynos 9820's GPU is a Mali-G76 MP12 chip capable of some serious number crunching. Samsung also promises additional Unreal Engine game optimization for smoother gameplay.

The chip is based on 8nm LPP node on contrary to Snapdragon 855's 7nm. The two are so close that any differences are bound to come from the different architecture of their elements rather than sheer technological advantages.

Without further ado, here's how the Exynos 9820 fares against the competition and its predecessor.

GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone XS Max
  11432
• Xiaomi Mi 9
  11181
• Samsung Galaxy S10/S10+
  10521
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro (perf.)
  10110
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  9712
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  9026
• OnePlus 6T
  8977
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  8883
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  8349

GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone XS Max
  4777
• Samsung Galaxy S10/S10+
  4543
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  3771
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  3642
• Xiaomi Mi 9
  3503
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro (perf.)
  3390
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  3291
• OnePlus 6T
  2431
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  2199

AnTuTu 7

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 9
  372006
• Apple iPhone XS Max
  353210
• Samsung Galaxy S10/S10+
  340345
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro (perf.)
  308050
• OnePlus 6T
  293994
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  273913
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  264044
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  248823
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  246660

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone XS Max
  130
• Samsung Galaxy S10/S10+
  102
• Xiaomi Mi 9
  100
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro (perf.)
  88
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  83
• OnePlus 6T
  83
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  83
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  75
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  74

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 9
  60
• Apple iPhone XS Max
  60
• OnePlus 6T
  59
• Samsung Galaxy S10/S10+
  56
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  51
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  50
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro (perf.)
  50
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  46
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  45

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone XS Max
  99
• Xiaomi Mi 9
  70
• Samsung Galaxy S10/S10+
  69
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  61
• OnePlus 6T
  60
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro (perf.)
  54
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  53
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  47
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  45

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone XS Max
  60
• Xiaomi Mi 9
  56
• OnePlus 6T
  53
• Samsung Galaxy S10/S10+
  37
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  34
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  27
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro (perf.)
  27
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  25
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  24

GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone XS Max
  60
• Samsung Galaxy S10/S10+
  42
• Xiaomi Mi 9
  42
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  35
• OnePlus 6T
  35
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro (perf.)
  33
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  29
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  28
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  28

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone XS Max
  47
• Xiaomi Mi 9
  35
• OnePlus 6T
  31
• Samsung Galaxy S10/S10+
  23
• Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)
  20
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  17
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro (perf.)
  16
• Samsung Galaxy Note9
  15
• Samsung Galaxy S9+
  14

Aztek Vulkan Normal (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone XS Max
  67
• Xiaomi Mi 9
  41
• Samsung Galaxy S10/S10+
  40
• OnePlus 6T
  37
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  24

Aztek Vulkan Normal (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone XS Max
  52
• Xiaomi Mi 9
  34
• OnePlus 6T
  33
• Samsung Galaxy S10/S10+
  19
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  9.9

Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone XS Max
  32
• Xiaomi Mi 9
  23
• OnePlus 6T
  21
• Samsung Galaxy S10/S10+
  13
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
  7.5

Raw CPU performance appears to be pretty much on par with the Snapdragon 855 taking turns to lead in the different benchmarks. But as far as single-core performance goes, well, the huge Mongoose M4 core clocked at 2.7 GHz simply blew away the Qualcomm competitor. The single-core performance is impressive and blows everyone else out of the water, except for Apple's A12 Bionic on the new iPhones.

GPU performance is right up there with the best in the class but it falls short in some tests against the Adreno 640 found in the Snapdragon 855.

So no surprises there - the Exynos 9820 is a beast and with no shortage of performance power. Yet we still need to see how it holds up in everyday use and how optimized it is. Our battery tests will also be an interesting one as it will tell us more about its power efficiency. All of these will be addressed in the full review but in the meantime don't miss our early hands-on look.