Galaxy S21 Snapdragon Model Might Still Leave Exynos In Its Dust

Just when you thought Samsung's Exynos chips have finally caught a break, new data allegedly puts its back in its place. As far as the Galaxy S21 is concerned, that is. There is still little concrete evidence as to which processors Samsung's early 2021 flagship will be running on but, if it keeps the status quo, there might again be some disgruntled consumers who will have to settle for a model that underperforms a different variant, simply because of where they live.

The gap between Qualcomm's Snapdragon and Samsung's equivalent Exynos has never before been wider and more pronounced than in the past two or so years. It seemed for a time that things are going terribly for Samsung's Exynos business, to the point that it even chose Qualcomm's chips for the Galaxy S20 and Galaxy Note 20 it sold in its own home market.

That trend might continue to next year's model, depending on how the winds and rumors turn, as a new benchmark score on Geekbench reveals what may be a Snapdragon Galaxy S21's performance. A certain SM-G996U with a Snapdragon 875, believed to be next year's premium Samsung phone, clocks in at 1120 and 3319 for single-core and multi-core tests, respectively. Two months ago, an SM-G996B with an Exynos 1000 scored 1038 and 3060 on those same tests.

There is, however, one caveat to this disappointing tale for the Exynos. The model tested on Geekbench used the current Exynos 1000 chip while there is some expectation that the Galaxy S21 will actually use a still-unannounced Exynos 2100. If true, the tables could turn on Qualcomm, depending on how Samsung's processor actually performs in practice.

If anything, this back and forth between Snapdragon and Exynos only emphasizes the rather unfavorable situation Samsung customers find themselves in. Through no fault of their own, some will have to settle for the less powerful model, simply because they live in a market where Samsung's actual best isn't available.