The problem with making a product using two different sets of components means that there will always be a comparison to see which one is better. A good example was last year’s iPhone 6s in which it was discovered that the chipset was manufactured by Samsung and TSMC, which led to tests finding out that at least on paper, the TSMC version provided a longer battery life.
It seems like this year it is Samsung’s turn. The company’s recently launched Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge will feature either an Exynos 8890 or Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chipset, depending on the market it is launched in, and while initial benchmarks showed the Snapdragon 820 outperforming the Exynos, recent videos following the handset’s launch has suggested otherwise.
A couple of videos have made their way online which compares both models side-by-side, and from what we can tell, it certainly looks like the Exynos version of the phone is doing much better than the Snapdragon 820 variant. Of course this in no way means the Snapdragon 820 is a “bad” chip, it could simply be due to optimization issues.
Also given that both chipsets are pretty powerful in their own right, and that most of the tests seem related to IO or event network performance, we’re not sure if the differences can truly be felt by the average user. It is possible that Samsung could release an update to optimize the Snapdragon 820 further, but for now it looks like the Exynos model is the one to get if speed is your thing.
