The iPhone’s A-series SoC is the mobile processor that set the tone for the mobile industry. We’ve been waiting for years for our rivals to come up with a decent alternative, and now there may finally be one. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, which will power the Galaxy S23 series and other 2023 Android phones, could pose a huge performance challenge to the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max’s A16 bionic chip.
Qualcomm’s latest flagship processor will be equipped in all Samsung Galaxy S23 models. In addition, the chip Samsung gets could be exclusive to the S23 series. The base version of the Snapdragon 8 Gen2 chip already looks impressive. Previously leaked deGeekbench 5 benchmarks show that the processor is almost comparable to Apple’s iPhone 14 Pro.
Geekbench 5 is a popular benchmarking tool that provides scores for single-core and multi-core CPU performance. The benchmark tool also covers GPU performance tests, and we’ve been following these scores for many years, with brand-new SoCs usually appearing on benchmark sites sometime before commercial product launches.
In a recent test, the iPhone 14 Pro Max scored 1,884 (single-core) and 5,431 (multi-core). That’s a significant performance boost over the A15 Bionic chip in the iPhone 13 and the inexpensive iPhone 14. He’s also well above what other 2022 flagship smartphones can offer; for example, the Pixel 7 Pro is far behind the iPhone 14 Plus in terms of performance.
The release of the Galaxy S23 may be a few months away, but we’ll see other Snapdragon 8 Gen2-powered phones before then. vivo X90 Pro+ is one such device. Well-known Samsung insider Ice Universe has published the phone’s Geekbench scores, showing that the new SoC can reach 1462 in single-core tests and 5182 in multi-core tests.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen2 can almost match the performance of the iPhone 14 Pro in both single-core and multi-core tests. The future Galaxy S23 chip surpasses the iPhone 14 Plus in multi-core performance, but still can’t match it in the single-core score category.
Geekbench 5 benchmark scores. vivo X90 Pro+ Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 vs. iPhone 14 Pro Max A16 Bionic. Image source. Geekbench
With that in mind, the same leaker also teased huge performance and efficiency gains for the Galaxy S23. i Ice Universe notes that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 powering the Galaxy S23 will offer 45% more multi-core performance gains than the Galaxy S22’s Exynos 2200, with GPU performance up to GPU performance is 60% better than the Exynos 2200, plus an 88% improvement in energy efficiency.
We’ll certainly be surprised when we see the actual Galaxy S23 benchmark results next, even though it hasn’t leaked yet. If the rumors are true, the 2023 Samsung phones will get an exclusive custom Snapdragon 8 Gen2 SoC variant that is even better optimized. This means that these phones could score higher in the benchmarks than the Snapdragon 8 Gen2 scores in the existing Vivo phones.
