Samsung Galaxy S5 vs Sony Xperia Z2: Droid gladiators

Performance

With both phones powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 and using 1080p screens you might think a performance test is pointless. It's not, it's just that Qualcomm's naming scheme is unclear and hides the fact that the Galaxy S5 processor is clocked at 2.5GHz, while the Xperia Z2 CPU is at 2.3GHz.

The GPU clockspeeds are equal in theory, but the Sony flagship has 3GB of RAM. Since the CPU and GPU share that, the Xperia Z2 might come out ahead despite the lower processor speed.

The slower CPU is felt in Geekbench 3 where the Samsung Galaxy S5 posts the higher score. Still, Xperia beats the HTC One (M8), which uses the same chipset (but with 2GB of RAM).

Using Basemark OS II we see that the Samsung has an advantage in single-core tasks, but the difference is thinning away for multi-core loads. The overall score from the benchmark puts both phones on even ground.

GeekBench 3

Higher is better

• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  3011
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
  2937
• Sony Xperia Z2
  2856
• HTC One (M8)
  2367
• LG G2
  2243

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  1082
• Sony Xperia Z2
  1080

Basemark OS II (single-core)

Higher is better

• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  2415
• Sony Xperia Z2
  2253

Basemark OS II (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  10063
• Sony Xperia Z2
  10044

AnTuTu 4 tests the entire system - CPU and GPU, but also RAM and storage - and the Galaxy S5 managed to inch ahead of the Xperia Z2. The HTC One (M8) beats both phones here, but it's no secret HTC is using benchmark detection to overclock its chipset.

AnTuTu 4

Higher is better

• HTC One (M8)
  37009
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  36018
• LG G2
  35444
• Sony Xperia Z2
  33182
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
  31109

With identical GPUs and screen resolution, both phones are expected to perform identically and indeed the difference between them is quite small. The Galaxy S5 wins the offscreen tests, while the Xperia Z2 takes the onscreen tests. The difference is less than 1fps however, unlikely to be noticed.

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• HTC One (M8)
  28.4
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  27.8
• Sony Xperia Z2
  27.2
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
  26.3
• LG G2
  22

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  11.8
• Sony Xperia Z2
  11.7
• HTC One (M8)
  11.1
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
  9.9

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (onscreen)

Higher is better

• HTC One (M8)
  30.1
• Sony Xperia Z2
  28.7
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  28.1
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
  26.7
• LG G2
  23.1

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia Z2
  12.2
• HTC One (M8)
  11.9
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  11.7
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
  10

We also tried Epic Citadel in Ultra quality to see if using a different engine will make any difference - but it was negligible.

Epic Citadel (Ultra)

Higher is better

• HTC One (M8)
  59
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
  54
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  53.7
• Sony Xperia Z2
  52.6

The Sony Xperia Z2 comes with Chrome out of the box, while the Galaxy S5 uses the stock browser too. As usual, Samsung has modified the stock browser (something they can't do to Chrome) to boost its performance and it beats the Z2 in both raw JavaScript performance (Kraken) and overall HTML5 speed (BrowserMark).

BrowserMark 2.1

Higher is better

• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  1398
• LG G Pro 2
  1346
• Oppo Find 7a
  1327
• Sony Xperia Z2
  1224

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  6043
• LG G Pro 2
  6578
• Oppo Find 7a
  6660
• Sony Xperia Z2
  7041

Winner: Tie. Going solely by benchmark numbers the Samsung Galaxy S5 narrowly won in the CPU and web tests, but the differences are too slim to notice in daily use.

The 3GB of RAM on the Sony Xperia Z2 allow it to handle multiple apps in the background better and while it didn't increase raw performance, heavy multitaskers should still feel a difference.