Qualcomm impressed everyone when it announced the Snapdragon 888 earlier this month, but we still haven’t seen the chipset in action. Today, all of that changes thanks to a series of benchmarks.
Qualcomm's official Snapdragon 888 benchmark tests
Due to the ongoing pandemic, device reviewers were unable to have hands-on access to the new chipset when it was unveiled. So, to demonstrate its capabilities, Qualcomm has collated results across a series of benchmarks.
These test the CPU and GPU, as well AI use cases, and were performed three times using the default settings on a Snapdragon 888 reference design, which delivers the best balance between performance and power consumption.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 benchmark results can be seen in the image below. Do note that results can vary on future Snapdragon 888-powered devices due to different settings, storage components, display refresh rates, and more.
How does this compare to other chipsets?
In terms of how these numbers compare to rival high-end chips, the short answer is extremely well.
ANTUTU
AnTuTu has consistently been the most popular mobile benchmark over the years. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 scored a whopping 735,439 points on the latest version, and a quick look at the official website shows that the number is a new record for the benchmark.
The Kirin 9000-powered Huawei Mate 40 Pro is the current record-holder for Android devices with 661,059 points. The Snapdragon 865-powered Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, on the other hand, sits in 5th place with a still-impressive 603,352.
An iOS comparison would usually be on the cards, but there are obvious differences between the AnTuTu benchmark on iOS and Android and the two can't be directly compared. The main reason being that the operating systems use different APIs for the GPU test and different kernels.
Nevertheless, if you are interested in iOS results, the iPhone 12 Pro Max and its A14 Bionic chip achieved 638,841 points.
GEEKBENCH
On Geekbench 5, the Snapdragon 888 reference design registered an average of 1,135 on the single-core test and 3,794 on the multi-core test. These numbers are a little lower than the iPhone 12 Pro, which typically achieved around 1,500 and 3,900 points, respectively, but they’re still impressive.
If we compare them to Snapdragon 865 scores, the improvements Qualcomm has made this year are much clearer. The highest scores at the moment were achieved by the OnePlus 8 Pro and Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, with the number falling between 3,000-3,200 on the multi-core benchmark.
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On the single-core test, Android numbers usually come in at around 800 points with Geekbench 5.
GFXBENCH
Another popular test is GFXBench, which the Snapdragon 888 reference design breezes through. On the Aztek Ruins Vulcan test, it scored an average of 86 frames-per-second. To compare, the Galaxy S20 Ultra's best score is 53.9fps and even the Mate 40 Pro only managed 72.3fps.
The Manhattan benchmark, on the other hand, led to 169fps with Qualcomm's reference design. That's significantly higher than both the Mate 40 Pro (157.1fps) and the Galaxy S20 Ultra (100.1fps).
What happens now?
The first Qualcomm Snapdragon 888-powered smartphones should be available in early 2021. When these will be announced and released remains to be seen, but the first could be the Galaxy S21 series.
Rumor has it that Samsung’s next flagships will be unveiled to the public on January 14th and released on January 29th. If true, that means the first Snapdragon 888-powered smartphone is just over a month away.
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